


Pure White

by BleachFox



Category: Bleach
Genre: Drama, M/M, Romance, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-04-20 10:07:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4783442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BleachFox/pseuds/BleachFox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ichigo had been imprisoned by the evil Queen for almost a decade. His father's kingdom lay in ruins and the people believed him dead. His only hope lies with a bounty hunter who accidently rescues him. Will Ichigo be able to persuade the man to take him to the resistance, or will he be sold back to the Queen?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Pure White

\- Ichigo had been imprisoned by the evil Queen for almost a decade. His father's kingdom lay in ruins and the people believed him dead. His only hope lies with a bounty hunter who accidently rescues him. Will Ichigo be able to persuade the man to take him to the resistance, or will he be sold back to the Queen?

Disclaimer: I do not own any right to Bleach or any of the characters in the story.  

Warnings: Yaoi (boy x boy), swearing, OOCness

 

Prologue:

Ichigo Kurosaki was a very important eight year old boy, he was the prince of the Zangetsu Kingdom, one of largest and most powerful Kingdom’s in the realm. With this title, the eight year old boy had grown up quickly, having no time to run around and play. Instead he was taught the art of swordsmanship, of battle plans, leadership skills he would one day need and rely on to rule the Kingdom.

One day, Ichigo had been awaiting his father’s return from a hunting trip, he was still too young by a few years to accompany him. When the King did return however, he wasn’t alone. Riding on his horse with him, was a beautiful young maiden. When Ichigo ran out to greet his father and saw her, he knew immediately there was something about her he didn’t like.

Trying to voice these concerns to his father, they were brushed aside, the King was infatuated. The news of their engagement came shortly later, much to the Kingdom’s, and Ichigo’s surprise. He knew it wasn’t love, Ichigo couldn’t remember his mother, she had died shortly after his birth. But when his father spoke of her, it was with a soft voice and bright eyes which Ichigo learned was love. None of that occurred with this maiden, in fact, Ichigo rarely saw his father with her.

When the eve before the wedding arrived, Ichigo tried once again to persuade his father not to go through with the wedding. His father took no heed, telling Ichigo he was jealous that he no longer held his full attention, that there was someone else now. For the young boy it hurt to hear such words, it brought tears to his eyes because although he was still young in age, he was by no means a little child.

Ichigo took it upon himself to uncover the maidens true purpose in their kingdom, she didn’t love his father, he was sure of it. The following morning whilst the castle bustled with preparations for the wedding in a short few hours, Ichigo slipping though the castle unnoticed to the maiden’s room. He peered through to door, eyes widened at what he saw.

She was a witch.

Surrounding the maiden was a fine mist and she was chanting something too low for Ichigo to catch. An emerald pendent glowed between her hand, immobilised in mid-air and Ichigo could feel it, whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

She was evil.

He stepped away, turning to find someone, anyone, but the hall was deserted and before he could take a step, the door was open and he was pulled inside. He struggled with all his might, but his small body was no match for the witch’s magic and he found himself bound to the bed post, heart beating wildly as she approached him with a sickening smile, all dressed in white.

She touched his chest, above his heart. “Not yet…” She whispered and Ichigo’s eyes fluttered as they became heavy and within seconds, he was unconscious.

…

Ichigo woke up to find himself in an unfamiliar room, it was dark now and there was no telling how long he’d been asleep. Standing on the bed, he managed to look out his window, framed with heavy iron bars so he couldn’t escape. Seeing the cliff edge and dizzying drop to the see below, Ichigo closed his eyes and shivered.

He wasn’t at home anymore, this wasn’t the castle, it was the prison.

There was a steep, narrow path leading from the tower towards a small village he could just see in the distance by the tiny, flickering lights. He was trapped. Running to the door, Ichigo banged on it, screaming loud to be let out.

“This is a mistake, I shouldn’t be here!” He sobbed, but no-one responded, no-one released him. “I’m the Prince! Let me go!” The door swung open suddenly and Ichigo stumbled backwards, eyes widening when he saw the witch enter. Except now she wore a crown on her head, his mother’s. Ichigo stood slowly, clenching his shaking hands and glared at her fiercely. “You won’t get away with this.”

She smiled, walking towards the young boy and knelt down, patting his cheek. “Dear Ichigo… I already have.” Standing up again, she walked around him, surveying the room. “The King is dead, I rule now.”

Ichigo’s eyes widened, tears falling down his face as she chuckled and left the room, locking the door behind herself. “What are you going to do to me?” He asked quietly and she turned to look at him through the barred window looking into his cell.

“You will remain here until you’re of age.”

“What for?” Ichigo frowned, but got no further indication as to what was to come as the new Queen smiled at him, causing him to shiver. She turned and left without another word. He ran to the door and watched her disappear down the steps.

“What for?!”


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

_*9 Years Later*_

Ichigo, now a seventeen year old fast approaching his eighteenth birthday, sighed heavily as he gazed out his window at the very familiar scenery of the cliff side. Leaning his head against the cool stone of the small cell he’d come to call his room for over half his life, Ichigo frowned. His birthday was approaching and with it he ‘became of age’ as the Queen had put it all those years ago.

He still had no idea what that meant, the only contact he and with the outside world was the guard he brought him food three times a day. His silent companion who never did more than push food into the cell before locking the door again. He hadn’t seen the Queen since the day she locked him up. Ichigo had thought about escaping several hundred times over by this point. But what good would it do to knock out the one guard outside his cell when an unknown number lie between him and his freedom.

Nothing ever happened, it was a dull existence and Ichigo was sure he would be dead within hours of turning eighteen, that was the only reason he was still alive. Every day he woke up to breakfast being served, cold paste which he supposed was porridge. The highlight of his day was meal times, it reminded him at least he wasn’t alone. The door grinded loudly as it opened and Ichigo turned to see his guard slide a tray of bread and cheese halfway into the room before turning and leaving, not even sparing him a glance.

A fitting existence for a Prince.

The Kingdom probably thought him dead along with his father years ago. Unbeknownst to them he was locked up in the prison, in the most heavily guarded cells, no-one would ever know he was here. Ichigo sighed and slid down from the window to lay on his bed. He heard the adjacent cell open and close as his had moments ago, the other occupant of the tower getting his food.

It had happened a few years ago, he assumed, time didn’t have much meaning anymore. There had been a commotion outside his cell, a lot of yelling and banging. Ichigo had quickly peered out of is door to see a young man with bright red hair get shoved into the only other cell and the door locked before quickly pulling away as the guard turned. He didn’t want to be caught looking.

He had learnt quickly to be quiet, act as if he didn’t exist. When he first was left here, Ichigo yelled out the window almost constantly, until his voice was gone. He screamed and banged and cried for days on end in the hope of someone, anyone hearing him. No-one did of course and he was punished terribly each time he tried. Ichigo absentmindedly rubbed his arm at the thought, fingers running over the rough, jagged skin which served as a reminder of obedience. He had lost count of how many scars he had acquired over the years. He’d never even tried talking to the other prisoner, the guard was always there, and always listening so there was no point.

With another sigh he got up and grabbed the tray, munching slowly on the stale bread, not that he was complaining, food was food and he couldn’t remember the taste of anything else. It had been many years since he was sat at the high table eating a feast with his father.

Ichigo flinched at the thought, staring down at the block of cheese. A sudden surge of anger had him on his feet, cheese in hand and with a cry of frustration he threw it out of the window. A small sense of satisfaction filled him, that he was still able to make at least some small decision but the feeling soon faded as he realised he would probably be punished for such an act.

Throwing the tray towards to door, it landed on the floor with a deafening clang and Ichigo resumed lying on his bed, staring at the stone ceiling again. By now he could memorise every single crack and stain in this room, be able to draw them in his sleep. Covering his face with an arm, Ichigo clenched his jaw as he fought back the inevitable tears that always came when he thought about his father, or anything outside the tower.

Nothing existed outside his cell and the tower, it was all gone, just a faded memory he could barely remember.

A sudden yell from outside pierced the silence and Ichigo frowned, rubbing at his face before standing to look out the window when more noise followed. The sound of metal clashing echoed and he realised it was swords, a sound long forgotten it seemed, but not quite as he recognised it. Peering through the bars, Ichigo saw a clad figure walking up the narrow pathway towards the tower and his eyes widened as he watched him take down the guards effortlessly. Those guards were the best of the best, whoever this person was, they had some serious sword talent.

The intruder passed into the shadow of the tower and was lost from view. Ichigo quickly lay down, closing his eyes and concentrated fully on listening. He could faintly hear more yelling and sword fighting. Opening his eyes, Ichigo got up and started pacing, his heart beating wildly as adrenaline filled his bloodstream.

This was the first interesting thing to happen in years and Ichigo was praying the intruder was here for him, practically begging for this mysterious person to be his saviour. The door leading to their cells flew open with a bang and Ichigo’s eyes snapped open as more fighting occurred. Running to the cell door, he saw his guard fall to the floor and he looked up to see the intruder step over him and held his breath.

But it wasn’t his door the stranger went to, it was the other one. Ichigo’s heart sank and he bit his lip hard to stop himself from crying as he turned away and sank to the floor, burying his head in his arms. They weren’t here to rescue him, he would remain here and count his final days before dying. No-one was going to save him.

Gripping his knees tightly, Ichigo shook his head. “I’m not going to die here.” He muttered to himself resolutely and pushed up to stand again, turning to the door. “Hey!” He yelled at the cloaked figure, who paused and turned to look at him as the red headed man stumbled from his cell. Grabbing the bars, Ichigo managed to squeeze his arm through, for once glad he was so thin, and pointed at the key on the guard’s belt. “Pass me the keys.” When they made no move to get them, Ichigo had to close his eyes briefly to maintain control. “Please.” He added quietly, desperately. “Just pass me the keys and go, you don’t need to do any more than that. I won’t hold you back any further than that, I just need the keys.”

Ichigo stopped at that, hand shaking as he held it out to the stranger. It was silly really, pleading with this stranger for freedom, but Ichigo wasn’t about to pass up on his only opportunity for escape. The stranger just shook his head and grabbed the other prison’s arm, stepping over the guard and walked towards the stairs.

“Please!” Ichigo yelled after him, voice cracking slightly. “Don’t leave me here!”

They paused at the doorway and the stranger sighed audibly before turning and retrieving the keys. “Back up.” He told Ichigo in a gruff voice and Ichigo couldn’t help but grin, it was nice to hear someone else’s voice other than his own, a privilege he would never forget.

Pulling his arm back, Ichigo backed up and allowed him to open the door. “Thanks.”

“You better not slow us down.” Ichigo nodded and hesitated before slowly stepping out of the cell where he’d been contained for nearly ten years now. “Let’s move it before more come.”

Ichigo made to follow but paused at the guard, bending down to retrieve his sword. As he closed his fingers around the cool metal, he exhaled slowly and lifted the sword. “Ok, I can do this, I still remember how to use this.”

The mysterious man snorted, snapping Ichigo back into the present. The very dangerous present which could either be escape or imprisonment within the next few minutes. “Let’s go already.”

Ichigo nodded and turned to give his cell one last fleeting look. “You can’t have me bitch.” He muttered quietly before following after his saviour and fellow prisoner down the stairs.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Ichigo became dizzy as they moved quickly down the spiral staircase, he was already light-headed at the prospect of escaping and now he could barely keep upright. As they reached the bottom, they came to an abrupt halt and Ichigo stumbled into their rescuer, giving him an apologetic smile when he turned.

With a sigh, the man shook his head and opened the door slowly, peering through the small crack he created. “It looks clear, but it probably isn’t. You ready?” He asked, turning to look at Ichigo who nodded and gripped his sword tightly. “Good, we’re going to have a real fight on our hands to get out of here.” He grabbed a sword off one of the body’s he had defeated earlier, throwing it to Ichigo’s red headed prison mate. “Can you fight?” When he nodded, the man sighed and turned back to the door. “Then let’s go.”

Pushing the door open, he quickly made his way across the deserted courtyard, Ichigo and the red head following behind. When it became apparent they were alone, Ichigo slowly lowered the sword and looked up at the sky in amazement, it had been a long time since he’d stood outside, felt the wind on his face, even breathed fresh air, it wasn’t that good up in the small cell he’d been living in.

“Enough sightseeing, move it.”

Ichigo snapped back to reality and quickly joined the other two at the gate. “How bad?” He asked as the stranger peered through the door again.

“Bad, let’s do this.”

Stepping back, he kicked the door down and jumped into the middle of a stunned group of guards, easily taking them down. Ichigo was forced to block a sudden attack from another guard and stumbled back, quickly taking up a defensive position and on his right, he saw the red head do the same. The guard attacked again and Ichigo just managed to dodge the blade, his shirt getting torn in the process. As he back away, he frantically thought back to those lessons he’d had as a child, but they were many years ago and he hadn’t been in any real danger, the guards weren’t trying their best to kill him like this man was.

With a heavy sigh, he gripped the sword tightly and swung it at the guard, who easily blocked it. Before he could react though, Ichigo swung his leg around and slammed his foot into his chest, forcing him back and onto the floor. With another well aimed kick, the man was out cold and Ichigo laughed breathlessly.

“Take that!” He yelled, regretting it immediately as it drew the attention of three guards who quickly advanced on him. One guard he had barely been able to manage, but three at once, there was no way he’d survive. Luckily for him it seemed they didn’t want to kill him, as Ichigo attacked, one grabbed his arm and jerked his hand forcing him to drop the sword. Ichigo cried out, the sound cut off as he was kneed in the stomach and left breathless.

The third guard grabbed him around the middle and swung him over his shoulder, Ichigo wasn’t packing much weight so he wasn’t dragging him down. Ichigo struggled, managing to kick him in the face and fell to the ground, eyes widening as he heard a sickening snap. His arm, which he had put out to break his fall, was now bent at the wrong angle and he knew it was broken.

Stumbling to his feet, Ichigo watched the other two guards advance on him and he fell backwards as the pain jolted up his arm, making his vision swim. He kicked out at one of the guards, making him fall back and got to his feet, making a break for it down the narrow pathway. He didn’t know if the others were still alive, he didn’t know if he would be in a moment so he kept running.

Before he could react, Ichigo had tripped on the uneven surface and fallen down, landing on his broken arm and he gasped, luckily winded from the fall so he couldn’t make too much noise. This time the pain was so intense he couldn’t see, everything was black and he grasped at the ground with his good hand, managing to push himself up into a kneeling position.

“Come on…” He muttered, attempting to stand but his legs gave way and he collapsed again. “Come on!” He yelled at himself, trying again. Hearing footsteps behind him, Ichigo closed his eyes and shook his head, opening them again he saw his vision returning and could make out the blurry shape of a guard.

“Well well, looks like the end of the road for you.” The man sneered and as he came closer, Ichigo could see it was the one he’d kneed in the face, his nose was swollen and bloody.

“I hope that nose hurts like a bitch.” Ichigo spat, glaring at the man whose smug face suddenly grew furious. Ichigo flinched as he was struck, head snapping to the side but he managed to stay kneeling and he wiped his mouth when a trickle of blood escaped. “Just kill me already, I’ve waited long enough.”

“Sorry, as much as I’d love to kill you, I have orders to take you elsewhere.”

Ichigo couldn’t have fought the guard even if he tried, his body had given up the fight and the man easily picked him up, throwing him over his shoulder. Ichigo didn’t even feel the pain from his arm anymore, which he knew was bad, but a pleasant numbing had replaced it and he knew there was no escape, maybe he’d die before this man could patch him up, that would be nice.

Closing his eyes, he exhaled slowly and felt himself drifting off, smiling to himself, this was his escape then. Before he could though, he heard a yell and was suddenly falling, his eyes snapped open but he never hit the ground, someone had caught him. As he was turned over, his couldn’t help but laugh when he saw it was the stranger who had rescued him from the tower.

“You really are my saviour aren’t you?”

He scoffed at that. “I don’t know about that, looks like you’ve been beaten pretty hard.”

“I can’t feel my arm.”

He checked over it and sighed. “Broken, great. I knew I should’ve left you in that tower.”

“Left me to die.” Ichigo whispered, closing his eyes again. “So go and leave me, I’ll die soon enough anyway, today or not, even so, my days are numbered.”

“Shut up whining already, you won’t die at least put up some sort of fight.” Ichigo opened his eyes as he was lifted over the man’s shoulder. “Come on, we need to move before more men come.”

“Where to?” Turning his head, Ichigo smiled to see the red headed man was still alive, a bit bloody, but still breathing.

“I know a place.” And that was the last thing Ichigo heard before succumbing to his injuries and falling unconscious.

…

The first thing Ichigo noticed was he was lying on something soft, a bed maybe he concluded. The bed in his cell wasn’t exactly fit for a Prince, or anyone for that matter. It had been a thin layer of cloth padded out by some straw, uncomfortable and itchy, definitely not what he was lying on now. This bed was soft and fluffy, made of feathers, a common material in villages.

Cracking his eyes open, he could see it was night, the only light came from candles placed around the room which created flickering shadows. With a groan, Ichigo sat up slowly. He paused when trying to move him arm and looked down to see it had been neatly bandaged and placed in a sling. He flexed his good hand before checking his legs, pleased to see everything still worked. He was sore yes, but alive and that was what counted at the moment.

Standing up, he swayed slightly, vision dimming as blood rushed to his head and had to grip the headboard of the bed to remain standing. After a moment it passed and Ichigo was able to move slowly to the door, glancing around the room, he saw it was empty except for a cloak which he pulled on carefully, covering his broken arm before opening the door and headed outside. He was in a hallway, looking at the doors to see they were numbered, he correctly guessed it was an inn and made his way towards the stairs, carefully going down to find himself in a tavern of sorts.

It was as though someone had flicked a switch in his brain, the noise appeared suddenly, making him flinch. There was a loud raucous from the group surrounding the bar who were yelling and laughing, downing their beers. A band was playing some type of cheery tune at the other end of the room and Ichigo stood stunned at the bottom of the staircase.

Music, he was hearing music.

Looking around, Ichigo couldn’t remember a time he’d ever felt so joyful. He was surrounded by people who were laughing and enjoying themselves, music was playing and he was alive. What more could he ask for? He jumped suddenly when someone grabbed his arm and came crashing back to earth, he couldn’t be too far from the prison, and he wasn’t safe.

“Hey, calm down.” Ichigo paused at the familiar tone, turning to see it was his saviour and relaxed. “I see you’re ok then?” He nodded in reply and the man steered him towards a table in the shadows where his fellow prisoner was sat looking around anxiously. “Here eat, you must be starving.”

Ichigo looked down at the plate passed to him as he sat down and slowly picked up his spoon. In front of him was what looked like a stew, it sure smelt great whatever it was. He slowly took a spoonful and ate it, tasting it carefully. Almost moaning at the taste, he quickly ate the rest, it had been too long since he’d had a hot meal and this food was fit for a King.

“Right, so what now?” The red head asked, turning his attention to their rescuer to leave Ichigo to eat in peace. “We can’t stay here, they’ll be looking for us.”

“I know, we only stopped because of him.” He nodded in Ichigo’s direction but he ignored them, this man had given him food so he would allow some leeway, for now. “We’ll leave as soon as he’s done.”

“So let’s go.” Ichigo said roughly, pushing the empty plate away and wiped his mouth. He may have been brought up the first eight years of his life to eat with the elegance and dignity of royals, but he would be damned if he was to sit there sipping at the delicacy he’d just eaten. “We don’t want to be caught, do we?”

The red head nodded in agreement and stood, Ichigo noting he also had a cloak identical to his, their rescuer must have gotten them whilst he was unconscious. A dark thought crossed his mind, had he paid for these, or were they stolen? He quickly pushed it away, was he really questioning this man’s morals, after all, he had killed countless men just to rescue them, let alone in his past.

“Alright but don’t get used to beds and taverns, we have a long road ahead of it and it’ll be rough.”

Ichigo snorted. “You think we haven’t lived rough?”

“Trust me, you’re tower will seem like a castle after this.” And with that ominous warning, the stranger got up and led them from the inn, thanking the innkeeper as they left. As they entered the dark and deserted streets, Ichigo pulled the cloaks hood up to hide his head. His trademark orange hair would be a dead giveaway if the guards were looking for them.

As he followed after his saviour, Ichigo frowned, this man didn’t seem to know who he was. Which wasn’t unlikely, after all, everyone assumed him dead. But by travelling with him and the red head, he was putting them both in danger, they would surely be killed if they were caught. Ichigo felt his heart jolt at the thought, but it didn’t deter him from following, he couldn’t be alone, not again. These two men were the only companions, Ichigo would almost go as far as to say ‘friends’ he had, and he couldn’t leave them, even if he was an unexpected addition to this travel party.

They reached the edge of the village, the glow of the candlelight stretching a few meters in front of them to illuminate the forest edge, which was quickly swallowed up into the darkness. Ichigo came to an abrupt halt. He had never been afraid of the dark, but he hadn’t been in complete darkness in years. The tower was always lit, the guard had to see him at all times, that’s how it was. He couldn’t remember what darkness was and this didn’t look like the best way to learn.

But as his saviour turned to look at him, face still hidden underneath his own cloak, Ichigo felt a surge of relief, he was safe with this man. He may not know his name or his face, but he was safe and he knew that without a doubt. So as he turned back to the forest and strode in, Ichigo hesitated for only a second before following after him.


	4. Chapter 3

A/N: For later reference in the chapter, Kouki means ‘light/happiness and hope’ and Kosuke means ‘rising sun’.

Chapter 3:

As they moved deeper into the forest, the trees became taller and thicker, blocking out the sky above them and they were encased in total darkness. Ichigo only knew where he was going by following the steady footsteps of their leader, who seemed to be able to navigate pretty well in their current situation. Many times he tripped over something on the floor, but managed to keep himself upright, it would be his luck to fall and break a leg this time.

After what seemed an eternity, they reached a clearing where the moonlight shone down and Ichigo could see it had been used before as a campsite, a small rock circle centred in the grassy area. “We’re stopping here for the rest of the night, so get some rest whilst it’s still dark. We’re moving out again as soon as it’s light.” The stranger, who Ichigo had decided to call him Kouki for now, crouched next to the stone circle. “We need wood to start a fire, don’t go too far.”

Ichigo nodded, setting down the pack he had been carrying. “We can do that, no problem.” The three of them separated to search the area surrounding the clearing. Ichigo sighed and bent down to collect some wood and what looked like dried grass. He winced slightly as he shifted it about in his arms, accidently hitting his broken arm.

Ignoring Kouki’s warning about staying close, Ichigo headed out quite a distance away from the clearing to search. He paused mid-bend to collect another piece when it went silent suddenly, before he could hear the quiet shifting of the animals that were around him, out of sight, but he could hear the rustling in the trees and snuffling on the ground. But now, it had gone completely silent, there wasn’t even a rustle of branches in the wind. Abandoning the piece on the floor, he turned and quickly made his way back to the clearing, whatever was out there, he didn’t want to meet it.

He could see the clearing ahead, light flickering through the trees which meant there was a fire when he tripped over another hidden root. This time he couldn’t keep his balance and with a loud yelp, he fell to the ground and let go of his bundle, the wood scattering around him with an even louder noise. For a moment it was silent and Ichigo huffed, pushing himself up but suddenly, something grabbed him by the leg and yanked him down again.

Ichigo kicked out, rolling over to see what it was and he immediately wished he hadn’t as his eyes widened with fear. The creature towered above him, maybe five, six feet high and glared at him through narrow red eyes. Its body was hidden by the darkness but Ichigo could still see its thick arms and legs, its paws armed with razor sharp claws. It snarled, showing off many large, sharp teeth and Ichigo gulped, crawling backwards. It slowly followed after him and Ichigo realised it was toying with him. His fingers brushed one of the branches he had collected and he slowly grasped it, taking a swing at the creature and managed to clip the side of its head.

With a deafening howl it backed away, Ichigo scrambled to his feet and ran towards the clearing. He was almost there when he took a blow to the back, claws tearing through his flimsy shirt and into his back and Ichigo cried out in pain, slamming into the floor and jarred his broken arm. Panting harshly, he rolled over to see a mouth full of teeth and kicked out, his leg was caught and he was thrown a good few feet before landing again and this time, he couldn’t find the strength to move.

Ichigo could only watch helplessly as the creature stalked towards him, it seemed to be grinning as if it knew it had won. As it reached him, the creature bent down, probably to inflict the finishing blow and Ichigo closed his eyes, covering his face with his good arm. But nothing happened, instead he heard another howl and cracked his eyes open to see a sword impaled through its chest. As it fell to the floor now dead, he could see he was rescued yet again by the stranger, the name Kouki was seeming more fitting than ever.

“I can’t leave you alone for a second, can I?” With a sigh he yanked his sword free and holstered it before bending down to lift Ichigo into his arms. “I told you not to go far, this place is dangerous and full of creatures like that and worse.”

Ichigo shivered, instinctively burying his head in the man’s coat. As he was set down next the fire, he immediately pulled away with a blush, avoiding looking at his face. “Thanks.” He whispered, looking down at his lap.

“Yeah, I think I’m going to be hearing that a lot with you.” Kouki moved around behind him, gently touching his back and Ichigo jerked in surprise, he had all but forgotten about the cuts. “Take off your shirt, I need to clean these.”

Ichigo blushed, but slowly removed the shirt and refixed his sling. Kouki went to collect something from his pack before sitting down behind him and began cleaning up the wounds. It didn’t help with Ichigo’s blush which only deepened. He wasn’t used to gentle treatment, the only time anyone had touched him was to hurt or beat him. This new gentle touch was making him stomach flutter and embarrassingly, Ichigo began to feel the stirrings of arousal.

“Alright, that will do, try not to die or attempt to die again ok? I’m running out of supplies.” With a sigh, Kouki finished bandaging Ichigo’s back and went to collect a shirt, throwing it at the orange head. “That’s my only spare so if you ruin it, there isn’t another.”

“T-thanks.” Ichigo stuttered, quickly pulling the shirt on. Looking around, he noticed the red head hadn’t returned and after a moments silence, he spoke again. “What was that thing? They haven’t always been here, have they?”

Kouki chuckled darkly and sat across the fire from him. “No, they appeared after the new Queen started her rule. The forest used to be relatively safe, excluding the wolves and bears, but when the King and Prince died, things changed. Don’t worry though, they won’t approach us now, scared of light and fire so it’s safe.” He paused, looking up at Ichigo suddenly. “How long were you in that tower?”

Ichigo hesitated, looking at the fire. This man obviously thought him dead, should he tell him that the Prince wasn’t dead, that in fact, he was sat a mere few metres away? Or would that endanger them both? Thankfully he was saved from answering as the red head came walking in from the trees, carrying a large amount of firewood.

“Here you go.” He proclaimed, tipping it next to the fire. “That should last us the night. I miss something?” He added, looking between the two and Ichigo’s new attire.

“No, now get some sleep.” Kouki got up and threw them both some blankets before lying down on his own. “You’ll need all the sleep you can get.”

Ichigo slowly lay down, he was forced to lie on his stomach and had his arm propped awkwardly to prevent him injuring it further. He sighed quietly, it would take a long time to get to sleep in this position, why did he have such bad luck. But the world had changed since he was a child, it was no longer safe and the skills he had learnt were not enough to protect himself, Ichigo had learnt that the hard way.

He jumped suddenly the red head shifted closer to him. “Name’s Renji, you?”

Looking at the curious man, Ichigo sighed. “Ichigo.” He replied quietly so they weren’t overheard.

Renji’s brown eyes widened at that. “As in… Ichigo Kurosaki?” He asked, even quieter than Ichigo had been and he nodded in reply. “You’re alive… and all this time you’ve been a cell away from me!”

“Shhh!” Ichigo hissed, jerking his head at the other man who was seemingly asleep a good way away from them. “Don’t tell him, I’m not sure I trust him yet.”

Renji snorted. “Yeah with good reason, he’s a bounty hunter.” At Ichigo’s questioning look, he elaborated. “Bounty hunters are a law unto themselves. They do a job for a price they like and they don’t care about the rest, as long as they get paid, nothing else matters. My guess is, with you escaping, the Queen will soon but a giant bounty on your head. If he knows who you are, you’ll be in some serious danger, I doubt any bounty hunter will be able to resist the price she offers.”

Ichigo processed this information quietly for a moment. “So, what now?”

Renji just shrugged. “We’ll figure it out in the morning.” With that, he moved away back to his original spot and Ichigo rested his head on his pack. Mulling over the new information he had been given, it wasn’t long before he fell asleep.

…

Ichigo was woken up with a start in the morning, someone was shaking his shoulder and when he turned to see, it was Renji who grinned apologetically and sat down next to him. “Sorry about that, but Mr Hunter went to find food so I figured we could talk.”

Ichigo nodded, sitting up slowly and rubbed his face. “So, figured anything out?” He asked after yawning.

Renji grinned smugly and nodded. “I’m part of The Resistance, I suppose you don’t know what that is, do you?” When Ichigo shook his head, he continued. “We’re a group of people who still believe in the way things used to be, in the King, in the Prince, in you.”

He stared in surprise at that, there were people left who still believed in him? Ichigo felt like someone had just given him three hundred of his packs to carry. How could they believe in him when he didn’t believe in himself? He couldn’t even fight properly, let alone lead anyone.

“The point is…” Renji continued, eyeing him worriedly. “… I can take you to the resistance and we can get you trained up, the works. We can start a revolution, take back the Kingdom, and return it to its former glory, what do you think?”

Ichigo grinned, Renji’s excitement rubbing off on him as he envisioned the world he used to live in, a place where he didn’t have to be afraid for his life. A place of peace where dark creatures didn’t exist in the forests, where people didn’t suffer. “Yeah… It sounds good.”

They both jumped guiltily as Kouki returned, something thrown over his shoulder. With a wink, Renji got up and moved away to pack his stuff up and Ichigo began doing the same. “Hey, orange head!” He paused, turning to look at Kouki. “Catch!”

In instinct, Ichigo reached out and caught the thing that was previously slung over the man’s shoulder. Looking down at it, he could now see it was a dead fox. Pulling a face of disgust, Ichigo quickly dropped it on the floor and Kouki laughed. “That is horrible!”

“What else do you expect to eat? It’s hunt or be hunted, eat or be eaten out here so don’t be so picky.” He came over and picked the fox up again, looking at Ichigo. “You know how to skin one?”

“What do you think?”

“I think you don’t know how to do a lot of things.” Ichigo blushed in embarrassment at that, looking down and clenched his hand. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t know how to be useful, it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t survive in this new world. “Look.” Kouki murmured softly, seeing the way Ichigo’s expression became downcast. “I’ll teach you, ok?”

“Seriously?” He asked dubiously, looking up again to see him nod. “Ok then…”

“Then you can cook for us when I bring food.”

“I am not your wife!” Kouki laughed at that and Ichigo felt his heart jolt at the sound as his cheeks warmed again. It was a nice sound, something he could definitely get used to hearing. “Fine.” He muttered, snatching the fox from him and sat down next to the dwindling fire. “Show me how to do this then.”

Half an hour later and Ichigo stared down at the cooked meat in his hands which had been a fox not an hour ago and frowned, this was not how he saw his life going. But then again, nothing ever goes to plan. He sighed, delicately tasting it and was pleasantly surprised to find it tasted alright, a bit charred, but still edible.

“Not bad.” He looked up to see Kouki had also tried the meat, Renji was also eating, his mouth full but he nodded enthusiastically. “I guess you can learn quickly.”

Ichigo nodded, quickly finishing his meat as he hadn’t eaten since the stew the night before. “How do you know all this stuff?” Ichigo swept his arm out around the forest. “It can’t have been easy.”

Kouki snorted at that, putting the fire out before standing up. “I’m used to living it rough, have done all my life and being a bounty hunter is no different.” He looked at Ichigo, seemingly debating something, Ichigo couldn’t tell since he was still wearing his cloak, he had yet to see the man’s face. “You must have done something pretty bad to be locked up that tight. How long were you there?”

He hesitated and also stood, watching Kouki for a moment before slowly replying. “Nine, nearly ten years.”

“Shit, and how old are you now?”

“Almost eighteen.”

“You’ve been in that tower since you were eight?” He asked quietly and Ichigo nodded. “Well no wonder you don’t have a clue what’s going on. Who the hell are you?” When he hesitated to answer, Kouki held up a hand. “You know what, never mind, I don’t care. It’s not important but I need to call you something.” He paused, thinking about it for a moment. “How about Kosuke?”

Ichigo felt his chest warm at the new name, the man thought that highly of him. “Thanks.” He murmured quietly, turning quickly to hide his blush and began packing.

“So where are we going?” Renji asked, shouldering his pack as he was finished clearing up.

“That’s on a need-to-know basis.” When Renji raised an eyebrow, he sighed. “I know, that’s all you need to know.” He picked up his own pack and Ichigo quickly finished shoving his stuff into his own. “We need to get moving, we have a long way to go before the next checkpoint. Unless you want to get caught out here in the dark?”

Ichigo shivered at the thought, shouldering his pack, he could still feel the ache on his back whenever he moved. “Yeah, I’ll pass on that, lead the way.”

They left the clearing and began their long journey to their unknown destination. After a while, Renji sidled next to Ichigo. “I’ve got a plan. Tonight, when he’s asleep, we escape and make our way to the Resistance. I think I know the way from here.”

Ichigo hesitated, but reluctantly nodded. Kouki was a bounty hunter, which meant he would never be safe in his company. The sooner they got to this ‘resistance’ the better, before he figured out exactly who he was. “Ok, tonight.”


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

After several hours of travelling, they finally stopped for the night and luckily it was only just getting dark when they reached the campsite. They set up in a similar fashion to the night before and this time, when they searched for firewood, Ichigo made sure to stay close to the clearing. He did notice however that as he was collecting, he could see Kouki nearby, seemingly watching him and trying his best to ignore him, Ichigo continued collecting his wood. He couldn’t help but smile thought at the thought of the man keeping a watchful eye over him, he definitely needed it if another creature attacked him.

Sitting at the fire later on, night had fallen and Ichigo could hear creatures howling around them, moving around in the shadows but as Kouki said, they never moved into the light. He sighed and glanced at Renji who jerked his head at Kouki who was still awake.

Nodding in reply, Ichigo looked into the fire, running a hand through his hair before pulling a face. Whilst in the tower, he was allowed to bath once a week, purely for hygienic reasons he guessed, the Queen didn’t want him dying of some disease because he was dirty. His hair was cut once a year, on his birthday no less, a birthday present maybe. Since it had almost been a year since his last cut, his hair was definitely getting long and over the past few days it had definitely gotten worse walking through the forest.

Getting up, he walked around the fire and sat down next to Kouki. “Got a knife or something sharp?”

“Sure.” He rummaged in his bag for a moment before pulling out a knife which glinted in the firelight. Hesitantly, Ichigo took the knife and ran a finger along it, wincing when he cut his finger, definitely sharp. “Why do you need it?”

Sucking on the finger for a moment, he pulled it out before replying. “My hair, it needs cutting off.”

“Jeeze, you’re like a kid.” Taking the knife from him, Kouki stood up. “Scratch that, you still are a kid since you’re not eighteen yet. I’ll cut it, just in case you catch your neck, I doubt you’ve had much practice with a knife.”

Ichigo huffed, glaring up at the man. “Any other insults whilst you’re at it?”

He chuckled, collecting Ichigo’s hair together and roughly cut at the base of his neck. Ichigo shivered as his fingers brushed over the nape of his neck, sucking in a sharp breath. His fingers were warm compared to the cool night air and gentle against his skin, something he wasn’t used to and again, Ichigo felt the stirrings of arousal, but quickly pushed it away. How could he be attracted to a man he’d barely known a few days, a man whose face and name he didn’t know?

“Ok, I think that’s going to be fine, it’s short at least.” Ichigo blinked, looking down at his lap to see the long strands of his hair pooling around him. “Sorry, I’m not exactly talented at hair cutting.”

Ichigo ran his hand through his shortened hair, pleased to find the mass of twigs, leafs and knots gone. “It’s perfect, as long as it can’t get caught in branches I don’t care.” He turned, stumbling slightly when he realised how close they were before smiling nervously. “Thanks.”

“Alright, well get some sleep, we have another day’s walk tomorrow.” He nodded, going back to his own blankets and went through the motions of getting ready for sleep, though he knew he wouldn’t be getting any tonight.

The next few hours were the worst Ichigo could remember for a long time. He was lying on his stomach again, his back and arm ached like hell and he was exhausted, yet he wasn’t allowed to fall asleep. With a quiet sigh, he rested his head on his arms and gazed out at the forest, after a moment he frowned, seeing a pair of eyes looking back but when he blinked, they’d disappeared. He jumped suddenly when his shoulder was shook, rolling over only to sigh in relief to see it was Renji.

“Sorry, that’s twice I’ve done that.” He whispered, helping Ichigo to his feet with a grin. “He’s asleep, let’s go!”

Ichigo nodded, quickly packing his stuff away. As they went to leave, he hesitated, glancing back at Kouki. “One second.” He whispered and ignoring Renji’s hisses of warning, he carefully approached the sleeping man. Crouching next to him, Ichigo smiled softly. “Thank you, for everything.” He whispered before returning to a very worried looking Renji. “Where to?”

Renji frowned, looking around for a moment before pointing into the forest. “This way.” With that they headed off into the darkness, walking quietly to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Ichigo made sure to stay close to the red head’s back so he didn’t lose him in the darkness. After a while, Renji slowed to a stop. “Did you hear that?”

Ichigo’s heart jolted but he stilled, listening intently. Faintly, as if very far away, he could hear what sounded like voices and growling. “Yeah, any idea what it is?”

“No.” Renji shifted down onto his knees and began crawling towards the sounds. Ichigo had a bad feeling about it, an unpleasant sensation in his stomach but he followed Renji’s lead through the bushes. After a moment they stopped at the edge of the bush line, peering out of the thick branches and Ichigo’s eyes widened in horror. “Oh shit.” He heard Renji whisper next to him.

In front of them were at least fifteen hound dogs, all sniffing madly and pulling their holders forward. In addition to the holders there must have been another ten men, and that was what they could see from their torchlight. The Queens insignia shone brightly on the armour, a black dagger plunging into a blood red apple. Ichigo felt his body freeze up as one of the dogs turned in their direction and sniffed deeply before throwing its head back and howling loudly.

“Run!”

He jumped when Renji yelled, hearing him back up and run. As the other hounds took up the call, Ichigo scooted backwards and once free of the bush, began running as fast as he could. He had lost Renji, he didn’t know where he was going and was stuck between the dogs and the creatures of the forest. Not knowing what else to do, he kept running until his legs were giving out and he fell over something on the ground.

Hearing a growl behind him, Ichigo spun over to see a hound dog advancing on him, teeth bared and heckles raised as it snarled at him, saliva dripping from its lips. His eyes widened in fear and he started crawling backwards. Any second now the guards were going to burst through the trees and capture him, he wasn’t going to be able to escape this.

Suddenly the dog yelped and he was grabbed around the arms and let out an undignified squeak as he was thrown over his captors shoulder who took off at a fast pace. He wriggled and kicked out, managing to throw the man off who had to stop and put him down. Ichigo punched him with his good hand with all the force he could muster, managing to make him stumble and broke free of his grasp.

As he turned to run though, the man called out to him. “Kosuke, wait god damn it!”

Ichigo stumbled, turning around again to face the man with wide eyes. “Kouki?”

“What did you call me?” Ichigo laughed in relief, it was definitely him. “Where’s Renji?”

“I don’t know, we got split up. The dogs… the Queens guards… it all happened so fast…”

“Shit!” Kouki cursed, kicking the nearby tree and Ichigo flinched. “What the hell were you two thinking?!”

“It isn’t my fault!” Ichigo yelled back. “Are you even worried about me? What if I was injured, do you even care?”

“Why should I? You’re not even supposed to be here. It’s your fault those guards are here in the first place, isn’t it!” Ichigo stepped back like he’d been slapped, quickly blinking when he felt his eyes fill with tears. “I won’t get paid if I don’t deliver Renji and how are you going to make up for that?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Exactly, you’re useless.”

“Shut up!” Ichigo yelled, punching him again as his tears flowed freely down his face. “I didn’t ask for this, it isn’t my fault I can’t defend myself! You haven’t been locked up for a decade just to die!”

“What?” Kouki asked quietly, catching Ichigo’s hand as he went to hit him a third time. “What do you mean ‘just to die’?”

“It doesn’t matter.” He replied quickly, pulling his hand free. “Just forget it and let’s find Renji.”

Someone came bursting through the trees and Kouki raised his sword defensively. “Damn you two are loud! We’ll talk later, for now just RUN!” Renji yelled loudly as a couple of dogs came crashing through after him. Without stopping, the red head ran past them and they followed quickly, the dogs hot on their heels and the guards not far behind.

They came to an abrupt halt at a cliff edge which dropped to a river a good long way down. Kouki glanced between the drop and the dogs who were now advancing on them, boxing them in. “No choice, we’ll have to jump.”

Ichigo took his eyes off the dogs to look at him is disbelief. “Seriously?!”

“It’s that or die, now move!” Before he could react, he was shoved over the edge and falling. Before he could make a sound he’d hit the water and the impact knocked the breath out of him. After a moment he shook himself and struggled to the surface, breaking the water with a gasp.

“Renji?! Kouki?!” He called loudly, looking around and flinched when someone landed with a splash next him, causing a wave to break over his head. When they surfaced he could see it was Kouki who unbelievably, still had his hood up. “Asshole, a warning would have been nice!”

“Don’t complain, we’re safe now aren’t we?” Another person hit the water and emerged sputtering a moment later, it was Renji. “Let’s get out of the water, we need to keep moving.”

“In the dark?” Renji asked incredulously as they waded to the bank and climbed out. He grabbed Ichigo’s hand to help haul him out since he was incapacitated by his broken arm. “And get attacked by the creatures?”

“It’s getting light so we’ll be fine.” Ichigo turned to see he was correct, the sunrise was breaching the skyline in the distance. “Besides, you took the risk earlier didn’t you? Let’s move.” He shoved Renji to get him moving before turning to look at Ichigo. “You ok?”

“Fine.” Ichigo replied curtly. He hadn’t forgotten what had been said to him previously and was in no mood to be friendly with the man. “Don’t worry, I won’t burden you any more, I can still walk.” He followed after Renji without another word, hearing Kouki sigh deeply behind him before following.

…

“Well let’s never do that again.” Renji declared two hours later, collapsing onto the grassy field on the outskirts of a village they had walked unknowingly towards. “Maybe we’ll stick it out the Mr Hunter after all.”

Kouki had gone into the village to gather supplies, giving the two specific instructions not to wander off and stay put. Ichigo laughed and sat down carefully next to the red head. “Yeah, I don’t fancy another night time run.”

“Sorry I couldn’t get you to the resistance.”

Ichigo shrugged, hugging his knees with a sigh. “It’s ok, maybe we’ll find it after you’ve been ‘delivered’ to wherever we’re going.” He looked up as footsteps approach to see Kouki had returned who threw them both a small package.

“Eat, we’re way off course now and it will take an extra couple of days to get there thanks to you two.” Ichigo munched slowly of the bread, he didn’t complain about the lack of food, at least it was fresh. “Don’t pull that shit again because next time we probably won’t survive.” They ate in silence for the remainder of their break. “We should start moving, before it gets dark.”

And they were off again, into another forest and Ichigo sighed, trailing at the back. Whatever he had envision of his escape, it certainly hadn’t been this. Broken arms, injured back from nightmarish creatures of the night, jumping of cliffs to escape dogs and imprisonment and now days on end of walking. It certainly wasn’t the high life but Ichigo wasn’t complaining, at least he was free.

And so they set off for the day. “So Kouki huh?” Ichigo jumped at the sudden question, they hadn’t spoken all morning as they moved and his voice startled him from his thoughts. He looked up to see the man looking at him.

“Huh?”

He sighed, shaking his head. “You called me Kouki earlier.”

“Oh.” Ichigo felt his cheeks redden and quickly turned so looking at the ground which had become very interesting. “Yeah… That’s what I call you, since I don’t know your name.”

“So that’s what you think of me?”

There was no hiding his embarrassment this time as he spluttered, tripping over a root due to his distraction. “Well you call me Kosuke!”

“Yeah because your hair looks like a sunrise, what’s your excuse?”

Ichigo only felt his blush deepen and he subconsciously reached up to run a hand through his shortened hair. “You saved me.” He replied after a moment, keeping his eyes trained forward on Renji who was leading the way, decidedly not getting involved in their conversation. “I wouldn’t be here without you.”

When he didn’t respond, Ichigo felt his heart sink, he was only being honest. He jumped when a moment later the man strode to his side to match his pace, catching his arm gently. “Look…” He started quietly before pausing to sigh. “I’m sorry about before, what I said to you. You’re not useless.”

Ichigo smiled wryly at that. “We both know that’s a lie. At least now I can cook thanks to you.”

Kouki chuckled at that, letting go of his arm. “So we’re cool?”

“Uh yeah, I guess so.” Ichigo smiled to himself, looking up when Renji cleared his throat.

“So you two done having a ‘moment’? I’ve been leading us for a while now so you should probably know I have no idea where we’re supposed to be going.” He shrugged and looked around at the trees as if they would give him directions. “A little help would be nice.”

“Jeeze do I have to do everything myself?” Kouki muttered to himself before taking lead and Renji fell back next to Ichigo.

“So everything ok?” He asked, jerking his head at the man in front when Ichigo frowned at him questioningly.

He nodded. “Yeah, we just had something to sort out.”

“No kidding, I wasn’t lying when I said you’re yelling last night was loud. How else do you think I managed to find you?” Ichigo shrugged, looing away in embarrassment again. Something about the bounty hunter made him feel odd, flustered maybe. Most of the time he kept himself in check, didn’t overreact and kept a cool head. But around this man, he couldn’t help but react and it was very rarely dignified. “Well I hope we get there soon, I’m starving.”

Renji rubbed his stomach to show this, pulling a face to make Ichigo laugh. “Come on keep up!” Kouki called back to them and the two hurried to catch up with the man.

Five hours later and they were finally stopping for the night. As Ichigo set his pack down, he glanced over at Kouki to see he was starting a fire and sighed determinedly. He’d been turning it over in his mind all day, deliberating whether or not he should ask but it always came down to one thing, he needed to be able to protect himself. He couldn’t keep relying on Kouki for protect, eventually it would end up getting them both killed. So he needed to learn to protect himself.

He waiting until the fire was lit before approaching the man, clearing his throat to gain his attention. “So uh, I’ve been thinking and I was wondering if you’d teach me?”

“Teach you what?” He asked absentmindedly as he set about skinning one of the rabbits they’d managed to catch earlier that day.

“How to fight. I mean, I can use a sword, but my skills are a bit rusty and if we run into trouble at least you won’t have to worry about me.” Ichigo squared his shoulders, standing up to his full height, even if he was still a good head smaller than the other, and held out his hand. “What do you say?”

Kouki looked at him for a moment before grabbing his hand. “Sure, but I want something in return.”

“What?”

“Your name.”

Ichigo’s eyes widened and he quickly pulled his hand back as if he’d been burned. “I can’t.” He automatically replied, shying away from the older man. “It would put you in danger to know.”

“Alright… well at least tell me why you were locked up.”

“I can’t tell you that either.”

Kouki sighed, sitting down to return to the rabbit. “You’re a secretive man Kosuke. How do I know you weren’t planted there to stop me taking Renji? That this is all an act?”

Ichigo scoffed at that, rolling his eyes as he folded his arms. “That would be very elaborate don’t you think? I can promise you this, everything I’ve told you is true, I give you my word.”

Another pause as the rabbit was fully skinned. “You speak like a noble sometimes act like one, yet you don’t look like one.”

“You’re far too observant for your own good. Tell you what,” Ichigo sat himself down next to Kouki and smiled at him, holding out his hand again. “If you can guess who I am correctly, I won’t lie and will tell you if you’re correct. I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out soon enough, don’t try too hard though, you’re safer not knowing. So do we have a deal now?”

He grinned when his hand was taken again and shook. “Deal.”


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

That night Ichigo was sent to bed early in preparation for the following day, when his training would begin. He tried to object to this, but Kouki wasn’t having it, telling him to rest or forget the training so in the end, he did as told and got into his blankets. Since Ichigo hadn’t slept the night before and had spent almost two days on the go so it didn’t take long before he’d fallen asleep.

“Time to wake up!”

Ichigo almost jumped out of his skin as someone shouted next to him, flailing in his blankets for a moment as he tried to untangle himself. Hearing laughter he looked up to see it was Kouki and glared at the man. “You could’ve woken me nicer than that!”

“Yeah, but that was the easiest way. Do you want me to wake you with kisses next time?” Ichigo blushed, hiding it with a scoff as he finally untangled himself from the blankets. Kouki reached out a hand which he took after a moment and was hauled to his feet. “Come on, there’s a small clearing just through the trees we can use.”

Letting go of Ichigo’s hand, he turned and led the way through the trees and Ichigo followed behind him, focusing on not stumbling due to being half-asleep still. Before leaving the campsite, he glanced back at Renji to see his red hair sticking out a pile of blankets, the man still fast asleep underneath them.

As he entered the clearing behind Grimmjow, he watched as the man set his sword down and frowned. “Aren’t we using swords?”

“No, first is hand-to-hand combat. When I think you’re sufficient enough at that, we can move onto swords.” He turned back to Ichigo who sighed, removing his cloak and flexed his good arm. “Right, cloaks.” He commented absentmindedly before turning again to remove his and place it next to his sword. “Ok, ready?” He asked, facing Ichigo.

Ichigo’s eyes widened in surprise as he finally got to see the face of his saviour. He’d never believed in the fairy tales his father used to tell him, ones about meeting his mother and love at first sight. But now, he felt that doubt disappear and it seemed his whole body had warmed, his heart beating far too erratically in his chest to be normal.

The first thing he noticed about the man was his hair colour, it was bright blue, like the sky. Ichigo couldn’t remember ever seeing such a remarkable colour. His face was worn by any years of rough living, but he couldn’t be that much older than himself by a few years. His eyes were also blue, but much darker in colour were currently trained on his own face and Ichigo blushed when he realised he was staring.

“Right… yeah, fighting ok, I can do that.” Ichigo pulled himself together, giving himself a mental shake before taking up a defensive position. “So where do we start?”

Kouki smirked and strode over to him, grabbing his arm before moving one of his legs. “You’re distracted, that could get you killed if you’re not careful.”

It was his own turn to smile and in a swift motion he kicked the man’s legs out from underneath him, twisting out of his grasp as he fell down. “You should be careful too, letting your guard down could get you killed.”

“Alright, you got some skill, don’t get cocky.” Ichigo’s eyes widened when his leg was grabbed and he let out a yelp as he too crashed to the floor. “That could get you killed.” Kouki grinned as he knelt over Ichigo. “Come on, we’ve got a lot to get through.” He stood up abruptly and Ichigo blinked, dazed slightly by the close contact and jerked when he saw pulled to his feet. “Defensive position again.”

And so they continued for the next few hours as the sun rose and Ichigo couldn’t feel his arm or legs any more. He knew he would be covered in bruises by the end of the day but it didn’t matter, at least he knew he could fight now. Not that he couldn’t before but at least now he was up to scratch and more able to defend himself.

 They continued in this fashion for the next passing days, their progress now slowed due to the fact their mornings taken up by Ichigo’s training. It put another week on their journey Kouki had surmised one night, not that he seemed bother by the delay, in fact, he seemed pleased by their sessions. It had been four days when he decided they could move onto swords.

“Try not to kill me.” Kouki told him as he handed Ichigo a sword. “We won’t do anything too complicated today, just the basics.”

Ichigo rolled his eyes, watching as the man walked a good few paces away from him, sighing quietly. Although his combat skills had greatly improved, the close contact had done nothing to diminish his feelings for the man, rather it seemed to enhance them, make it more rea with each day. In fact, Ichigo was glad they wouldn’t be doing hand-to-hand combat any more, at least they wouldn’t be touching anymore.

“Basics, I remember them.” With another sigh he gripped his sword tightly, taking up a defensive position as Kouki strode towards him, sword raised. They spent maybe thirty minutes of going through simple positions before Ichigo started objecting. “Can we do something I dunno, a bit more challenging?” He asked after another run through of defensive and opposition moves. “I know this stuff, it’s anything new that I wouldn’t have learnt whilst locked up.”

“Alright cocky, try to keep up.” Kouki smirked and Ichigo’s eyes widened as he was suddenly attacked, stumbling back as he was forced to block the attack. As they continued, Ichigo had to use every bit of memory he could gather to remember what he was taught a decade ago. As Kouki moved back to take another hit, Ichigo remembered something his personal guard had taught him, days before the kingdom fell. It was a move he hadn’t perfected, but it might just work.

Kouki lunged towards him and Ichigo ducked under the blade which whipped past his ear, almost catching his hair. Twisting behind the man, Ichigo elbowed him in the back before tripping him up. As he fell to the floor Ichigo spun around, pointing his sword at Kouki’s throat as he placed a foot gently on his arm to prevent him counter attacking.

“Well, that went better than expected.” He grinned at the man beneath him before raising the sword from his throat. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw tackled to the floor and suddenly a dagger was at his throat. “Woah, what are you doing?”

“Where did you learn that?” Kouki asked him sharply, eyes flashing as he looked at him suspiciously. “There is only one man I know who could do that. Where did you learn it?!”  Ichigo gaped at him wordlessly, stunned by the change in the man now holding a blade to his throat. “Answer the question!”

“I-I don’t know I can’t remember!” Ichigo panicked, thinking back to remember his guard’s name. “It was Grimm something I think!”

The blade was removed from his throat as Kouki sat down next to him, a blank expression on his face. “Grimmshaw?”

Rubbing his neck Ichigo sat up as well, looking at the man next to him in surprise. “Yeah, how did you know that?”

There was a long pause before he responded. “He was my father.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair before looking at Ichigo with a slight frown. “He died the day the kingdom fell, I almost did too. He went back for the prince when everything started falling apart and I followed, we found a man carrying the kid out of the castle and my father tried to stop him, the man killed him.” He stopped abruptly and Ichigo looked down to see he was gripping his knife tight enough to turn his knuckles white. “I swore one day I’d kill him, and I will when I find him again.”

Ichigo hesitated before gently placing his hand over Kouki’s. “I’m sorry Kouki.”

“It’s not your fault, and my name’s Grimmjow.” He covered the teens hand with his other. “He was going to retire, my father that is.” He snorted, a wry smile flitting across his lips. “I was supposed to take over from him, I was going to become the Prince’s personal guard a week from that day.”

Ichigo nodded in agreement as he remembered that too. He hadn’t been happy about Grimmshaw leaving, he had been his guard for as long as he could remember and didn’t want him to leave. As he looked at the man he know knew was called Grimmjow, he couldn’t help but think maybe it wasn’t just chance that the man had rescued him after all.

He jumped when he realised Grimmjow was looking at him very closely. “What?”

“The Prince, he would’ve been a child when the kingdom fell, close to your age no doubt.” He moved closer still, and Ichigo’s hand twitched slightly which of course he felt since it was trapped between his own hands. “You can’t be… but he died…”

Yanking his hand free he quickly covered Grimmjow’s mouth. “Don’t say it. If you say it then it becomes real, I don’t want it to be real yet.” He sighed in relief when the man nodded and removed his hand before standing up. “We should go back to Renji, it’s almost midday we should be moving by now.” He walked briskly back to the campsite to pack his stuff away, largely ignoring the older man as he followed.

He trailed behind the other two as they walked that day, not wanting to be too close to Grimmjow in case he tried to finish their earlier conversation. He didn’t want the man to know who he was, even if he’d already confirmed it, they hadn’t spoken the words out loud. He didn’t want to be known as the Prince, he didn’t want to be treated like one. The way Grimmjow treated him was as if he was anyone or nobody and he liked that, no special treatment, as if he was a normal person. But the truth was he wasn’t and know he knew, it was only a matter of time before he figured it out anyway.

Although they had been travelling for hours, it felt like only a few when they came to a stop for the night. “Tomorrow we should reach our destination.” Grimmjow informed the two as they set up the fire. “It’s about half a day’s walk away.” He grabbed Ichigo’s wrist when he went to move away. “You want to train in the morning?”

Ichigo smiled brightly after a moment. “Sure.” He removed his arm from the man’s grip and went to set up his bed for the night, making sure to be on the opposite side of the fire to him.

That night, both Grimmjow and Renji were asleep and Ichigo was finding it difficult to find his own. He sat up and stared at the fire for a while before standing up and carefully making his way around the two sleeping men to venture out of the camp site, making sure to stay within the firelight. He didn’t want a repeat of what happened last time he went too far. He soon discovered they were at a cliff edge and he sat down near the edge, still able to see the firelight form his position as he looked out over the forest they had been travelling through.

He jumped when a twig snapped behind him, whirling round in surprise only to sigh in relief when he saw it was Grimmjow. “Don’t do that, you scared the hell out of me!” The man just shrugged with a grin before sitting down next to him and handed him an apple. “Where did you get this?”

“A tree obviously.”

Ichigo rolled his eyes before taking a bite from the fruit. He looked at Grimmjow thoughtfully as he chewed, the man said nothing, just sat next to him silently looking over the cliff edge. “So uhh…” Ichigo began before hesitating, looking at him almost shyly. “I guess you figured it out by now huh, I am Ichigo Kurosaki.” He paused, looking down at his knees and sighed, closing his eyes. “I didn’t want to tell you because you’re a bounty hunter, because you might take me to the Queen. But I know now you wouldn’t do that.” He cleared his throat which was starting to itch before smiling at Grimmjow who hadn’t spoken yet. “I trust you and you deserve the truth.”

He frowned when Grimmjow started laughing and his eyes widened when he found he couldn’t breathe, looking down at the apple to find that it was dripping black poising down his hand and onto the floor. Dropping the fruit his hand flew to his throat as he fought for breath.

“W-what did you do?!” He gasped, kneeling over as he coughed. “Grimmjow!”

“You cannot escape.” Ichigo’s head snapped up when he heard a voice that definitely wasn’t Grimmjow’s and watched in horror as he transformed into someone else. This man was who Grimmjow had talked about earlier, the man who’d kidnapped him. He had seen him a few times during his imprisonment and he was the Queen’s right hand man, Ulquiorra Cifer.

His vision started dimming and Ichigo collapsed on the floor, still unable to draw breath and the last thing he saw was Ulquiorra moving to stand over him and then the last thing he heard before passing out was someone shouting his name.

“Ichigo!”


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

“Ichigo!”

Grimmjow jerked awake at the cry of someone’s name, quickly untangling himself from the blankets he’d been sleeping in and drew his sword. As he looked around from where the cry came from but the forest was silent, not even a stirring in the darkness. Suddenly there was another loud yell and a thump coming from the cliff edge and Grimmjow quickly ran towards it, bursting through the tree line and came to an abrupt halt at what he saw.

Kosuke was lying on the floor unmoving, either dead or unconscious he couldn’t tell. Renji was hurriedly backing away from a man who turned upon Grimmjow’s arrival and his grip on his sword tightened when he saw it was the man who had killed his father.

“You.” Grimmjow moved towards the man, making sure to get between him and Renji who quickly went to Kosuke’s side. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to collect what belongs to the Queen, what you stole.”

“I won’t let you take him.” Grimmjow ducked as the man swung his blade at him before counter-attacking with his own.

Renji flinched as the two continued fighting before turning to Ichigo, giving him a shake and turned his head. His face was pale and his lips had lost their colour, placing his fingers against the teen’s neck he was startled to find no pulse and shook him again. “Ichigo? Come on wake up! Ichigo?!” Running a hand through his hair, he turned to see Grimmjow had forced the other man to retreat and was striding towards them. “He’s dead.”

Grimmjow came to an abrupt halt in front of them both, looking at him with a blank expression. “Dead?” He asked quietly, dropping to his knees next to him when Renji nodded. Taking Ichigo from the red head, he gently cupped on of the teens cheeks and bowed his head. “This is my fault, I should have protected him.” Renji looked at him sharply, but said nothing as he stood and carried Ichigo in his arms. “It’s getting light, we should go. If we hurry we will make it there before midday.”

“Make it where?” Renji stood as well, following him back to the camp.

Grimmjow placed Ichigo gently next to the fire before starting to pack. “The Resistance, is that not where you wanted to go?”

“Well yeah… Why didn’t you tell us before?”

“Because you didn’t need to know and I didn’t know who Ichigo was. It was dangerous to inform him where we were going in case he was a spy.” Renji scoffed at the idea and Grimmjow turned to him, eyebrow raised. “You were the resistance’s leader, you were imprisoned in the most guarded pace in the kingdom. Ichigo could have been anyone.”

“But he wasn’t, he was the Prince and now he’s dead.”

“Which is why we need to bring him with us.” Grimmjow finished packing and picked Ichigo up again. “Come on, let’s move.” Renji sighed, shouldering his own pack before following Grimmjow into the forest.

They had to stop several times along the way due to Grimmjow carrying Ichigo. It was only so far he could travel with the teen in his arms before he had to stop for a break. Renji offered several times to take him but Grimmjow refused each time, in the end Renji guessed this was the man’s way of punishing himself for Ichigo’s death. He knew it was neither of them were to blame for what had happened, but Grimmjow still felt responsible apparently.

It was just after midday when they arrived, the sun was high in the sky and both men were exhausted from the long trip as they walked towards the entrance. The two guards on duty quickly stood up at their approach, hands at swords ready but when they saw Renji they quickly saluted. “Sir?!”

Renji almost laughed, but managed to turn it into a cough at the last moment, it had been a long time since someone had called him that. “Where’s Rukia?” He asked and one of them quickly ran off, presumably to find her. Grimmjow gave him an impatient look, shifting Ichigo in his arms slightly and Renji sighed. “Come on, she can meet us at the house. Presumably she still lives there?” He asked the other guard who nodded, stepping aside to let the two men through.

They walked through the camp which was moderately populated by people walking about. Some seemed to be training, improving their fighting skill whilst others looked more like civilians, the families of the last soldiers remaining which were still loyal to the King and Prince. It took them about ten minutes to walk towards the centre of the camp where they gathered for meetings and such, it was also where Renji lived.

“Ok, I think there’s a spare room upstairs, third room on the left.” Renji pointed up the stairs towards a hallway. “You can put Ichigo in there, it should contain a bed.”

Grimmjow nodded in thanks before leaving the red head in the entrance hallway and headed up the stairs to the room he was directed to. He opened the door to find there indeed was a bed and the room didn’t look like it was in use. Sighing in relief he walked over to the bed and gently lay Ichigo down on it.

Looking down at the teen it seemed he had been through a war due to his appearance. Torn, ragged and dirty clothes from their trekking through the forest for over a week, scratches adorning his face which was also covered in dirt and his hair which was jaggedly cut due to Grimmjow’s talent. If he didn’t know any better he wouldn’t have guess that he was actually the Prince.

With a heavy sigh he sat down in the chair next to Ichigo, after a moments of hesitation reaching out to hold the teen’s hand in his own. “I’m sorry Ichigo, this is my fault.” He paused, lifting Ichigo’s hand in his own to rest against his forehead. “I should have protected you. You’re dead because of me. It’s not fair that you died so young, never to restore the Kingdom to what it once was. I don’t doubt for a second you would have been able to.”

He kissed the top of Ichigo’s hand before standing up, laying it back on his chest. As he turned to leave, he hesitated, turning back to stand at the foot of the bed and frowned at the teen lying on it.

“You gave me something I never expected. Since I met you, you’ve brightened my days, that’s why I called you Kosuke.” Grimmjow chuckled softly leaning on the edge of the bed railings before sighing. “Yet I still couldn’t protect you, no matter what I feel for you. Why didn’t you tell me who you were? Was it because you didn’t trust me?” He didn’t receive a reply, not that he was expecting one. “I should have expecting this!”

Grimmjow slammed a fist on the bed, flinching when it jolted and quickly stepped back. After a moment he calmed himself, sitting next to Ichigo and took his hand again, leaning closer to him.  “I’m sorry, I just… I wish I could tell you things, things you would understand, but now it falls on deaf ears. Which is just as well since you wouldn’t want to hear this anyway.” With a moment’s hesitation he leaned over Ichigo, threading a hand through his hair and lifted his chin with the other. “I love you.”

With that he lowered his head, placing a soft kiss on Ichigo’s lips. When he pulled back, he felt a pang of disappointment when Ichigo remained still, remained dead. He snorted, what was he expecting, that Ichigo would wake up from the dead just because he kissed him? That only happened in fairy tales, not real life.

“As expected, I would have more with you in death than life.” Grimmjow sighed heavily and stood, making his way to the door. As he opened it, he paused and looked back at Ichigo, a wistful smile playing across his lips for a moment before it was gone. “Goodbye, Ichigo.”

He left, shutting the door behind him to return downstairs to where Renji was waiting with Rukia. She looked up as he came down, tears in her eyes and it seemed Renji had told her what had happened to Ichigo. “Is it true?” She asked as he reached them. “Is it really Ichigo? Is he dead?” When Grimmjow nodded she turned, hiding her face against Renji who quickly put his arms around her comfortingly.

“What now?” He asked and Grimmjow shrugged. “Well I guess I should say thanks at least… I mean you did bring me here after all. If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t have made it home or even out of that tower.”

“Daddy!” A young boy, maybe five or six years old came running over, attaching himself to Renji’s legs with a grin. Renji grinned back and ruffled his hair fondly.

“I have a son.” He looked at Grimmjow again, his smile softening and he nodded. “Thank you, for everything.” Grimmjow nodded back before turning to leave, the red head frowning after him. “Don’t you want paying?”

He paused at the door, turning to look at Renji. “No.” He said after a moment, shaking his head. “I got more from tis than you could ever pay me in gold and silver.”

Rukia pulled away from Renji, walking over to him and grabbed his hand, squeezing it softly with a smile. “Thank you.”

He smiled, squeezing back before removing his hand and left the house. Outside he was surprised to find a gathering of what looked like the whole camp had surrounded the main house, milling around with worried faces. He could hear the whispers, about the Prince, who was now dead, that there was no hope, all was lost.

Renji had followed him outside, Rukia soon after keeping a tight hold on their son. He looked at Grimmjow and sighed. “They know as well, about Ichigo. You should go, I need to speak to them, say something to reassure them.”

“Yeah good luck with that.” Grimmjow muttered before quickly walking down the steps and made his way through the crowd. He quickly got stuck in the middle of them though as the crowd swelled, making it impossible to move through them.

“All is lost!” A voice cried from the crowd, people parting as a man stood up. He looked half crazed with wild eyes and his unkempt appearance, the news of Ichigo’s death obviously unhinged him. “The Prince is dead and we’re next! And who is to blame for this? The man who was in charge of escorting him!” He spun around, pointing a finger accusingly at Grimmjow and all eyes were suddenly on him.

“That’s not true!” Renji called to them, but it was too late, a murmuring had been taken up by the crowd who was quickly surrounding Grimmjow. Bloodlust was clear in their eyes, they wanted someone to blame and they had found their scapegoat. “Grimmjow didn’t know who he was! There was nothing either of us could’ve done!”

Renji’s voice went unheard on them and without warning, as if acting on an unheard command those closest to Grimmjow began attacking him. Luckily he had seen it coming and was able to counter them but it only lasted a few moments before he was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people trying to get to him.

The last thing Grimmjow saw before he was tackled to the floor was Renji trying to make his way over, making slow progress through the crowd and he knew, the man would never get there in time. A sharp kick to his stomach brought him back to reality and Grimmjow did the only thing he could think of to do, curl up in a ball and ducked his head to prevent further damage.

Blow after blow was dealt onto him and it seemed like it had been going n for hours, yet in reality it had only been a few moments. Another sharp kick and he gasped in pain, so this was how it ended, not even in battle just beaten to death as a scapegoat.

“Stop! Stop it!” A new voice cried over the crowd and everyone fell silent, backing away from Grimmjow slowly.

He lifted his head after a moment, eyes widening as he recognised the voice and sure enough, as the crowd parted to let him through, Grimmjow couldn’t help but grin as he pushed through towards him. “Ichigo?”


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

“Ichigo!”

His eyes fluttered open with the echo of his name and Ichigo sat up slowly, looking around in confusion. The last thing he remembered was being in the forest and Ulquiorra. His eyes widened at that and he looked around the room, had he been captured? Was he back in the palace?

He touched his lips, which felt odd, a small tingling sensation remaining on them for a moment before disappearing. Looking down at his arm, Ichigo unwrapped the sling from his arm and flexed his now healed arm in confusion, a broken arm shouldn’t heal this quick.

Ichigo stood slowly and went to the window, sighing in relief as he peered out to see he was in some sort of settlement, definitely not the castle. Which left the question, if Ulquiorra hadn’t taken him to the castle, where was he? The door he discovered was unlocked at as he peered outside the room cautiously, he saw nothing standing in his way to prevent his escape, and surely if he had been captured he wouldn’t be unguarded?

Deciding to not waste further time thinking about it, he made his way to the stairs, carefully going down them to make as minimal noise as possible. No one was around, the house was empty. After a moment he heard voices, which were growing in volume, coming from outside the front door and he quickly strode over, opening it a crack to peer outside.

There was a large crowd gathered outside and Ichigo sighed in relief when he saw Renji in front of them. He exited the building, heading towards the man who was yelling something. “Renji!” He stopped yelling, tuning to look at Ichigo in shock. “What?” Ichigo asked, unnerved by the expression on the red heads face.

His attention was quickly diverted however when someone yelled, “Kill him!” and he looked up, eyed widening when he saw in the middle of the crowd it was Grimmjow, and they were surrounding him, beating him.

“W-what are they doing?” He asked quietly and Renji just shook his head.

“They blame him for what happened to you.”

“Stop!” Ichigo yelled, shoving the closest person to him who quickly turned around, probably to hit him but stopped upon seeing who he was. “Stop it!” People were turning to look and just as the man had, stopped when seeing him which allowed him to push through, making his way towards Grimmjow.

When he finally reached him the man was on the floor, beaten pretty bad but he managed to lift his head and grinned weakly at him. “Ichigo?” He dropped down next to him and his hands fluttered over his wounds. “You’re dead.”

Ichigo paused and looked up at him. “Well obviously not since I’m here, come on.” Standing up, he helped the older male to his feet which was no easy task since he was half-conscious. The crowd parted to allow them through, still silent and they easily parted. As they reached the stairs back to the house, Ichigo paused and turned to look at them all. “This wasn’t his fault, the Queen poisoned me, not him. This is not the answer.”

His attention diverted as Grimmjow stumbled on the steps and he caught him quickly. Turning away from the crowd, he helped the man up the steps, passing Renji who frowned at them both. “How?” He asked quietly, turning to Rukia. “He was dead, he had no pulse, and he wasn’t breathing.”

“Of course.” She whispered, watching as Ichigo supported Grimmjow inside. She looked at Renji to see he was frowning in confusion at her. “True loves first kiss! If he was only poisoned, then that would have saved him.”

Renji scoffed, raising an eyebrow at her. “Don’t be such a romantic, that stuff only exists in fairy tales. Besides, who would have kissed him?”

“I think that’s pretty obvious, don’t you?” She nodded at the two as they disappeared inside.

Ichigo half dragged, half supported Grimmjow back to the room in which he woke up, almost throwing the man onto the bed when they reached it. “Sorry.” He winced as Grimmjow grunted at the impact before sitting next to him gently, pushing him back into a laying position. “How bad is it?”

“Probably not as bad as I look.” Grimmjow pushed himself up into a sitting position before looking at Ichigo properly. “How? How are you alive?”

Ichigo smiled, helping him out of his shirt to assess the damage to his chest. “I wasn’t dead. It’s the Queen’s speciality a poison that mimics death. I’ve seen it before, you’d be surprised what I learnt about her in that tower.” He sighed, gently resting his fingers over a large bruise in the middle of Grimmjow’s chest. “I’m sorry they hurt you.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine.” Grimmjow caught his hand, covering it with his own. “I’m glad you’re alive.”

They both jumped when the door opened, Ichigo hastily pulling his hand away from Grimmjow as Rukia came in with some cloth and a bowl of warm water. She placed it on the side next to Ichigo before smiling at him. “Hi, I’m Rukia.”

“Uh, hi I’m Ichigo.”

“Oh I already knew that, Renji told me earlier.” She turned her attention to Grimmjow. “Are you going to be ok?” When he nodded she sighed, standing up again. “Ok, I’ll leave you to it then, I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”

She left and Ichigo frowned at Grimmjow. “Who is she?”

“Renji’s wife.”

“Renji has a wife?” He asked in surprise, realising for the first time he didn’t know anything about the red head.

“Yeah, a kid too apparently, a little boy.”

Ichigo frowned, turning to wet some cloth and gently wiped some blood from Grimmjow’s stomach. “So… can I ask something?” When Grimmjow nodded, Ichigo paused and looked up at him. “Who kissed me?”

Grimmjow jerked in surprise, his gaze travelling across the room so he didn’t have to meet Ichigo’s questioning look. “Why would you think someone kissed you?”

“True loves first kiss.” He answered, returning to cleaning Grimmjow’s wounds. After a few minutes Ichigo snorted. “I’ve never known you to be so quiet, don’t know the answer or don’t want to tell me?”

“Answer my question and I’ll answer yours.” Ichigo thought about it for a moment before nodding in agreement. “Ok, why didn’t you tell me who you were?”

Ichigo sighed, returning to his task so he didn’t have to look Grimmjow in the face. “Because I didn’t know you and you were a bounty hunter. For all I knew you could’ve taken me to the Queen for a large reward.” He paused, finally meeting Grimmjow’s eyes. “I know now you wouldn’t do that, I even told you so but it wasn’t really you, it was Ulquiorra.”

“What else did you tell him?”

“That I’m in love with you obviously.” Ichigo said it jokingly, but it didn’t make the words any less true, even if he hadn’t said that to Ulquiorra.

Grimmjow chuckled. “You shouldn’t joke about such things.”

“What if I wasn’t joking?” Ichigo said quietly, Grimmjow almost missing the words. He looked down at the cloth in is hands, pulling at a stray fibre that had come free. “Maybe I do love you, maybe I’m just afraid to admit it because you’ll reject me.”

“What gave you that impression?” Grimmjow caught Ichigo’s chin, lifting his head so their eyes met and he smiled at the teen. “Maybe I was the one who kissed you, and if I was then that would make me your true love wouldn’t it. How could I say no to you then?”

“Grimmjow.” Ichigo said his name in a broken whisper, lurching forward to crush their lips together. His fingers tangled in the man’s blue hair as the kiss deepened and he was pulled onto the man’s lap. “Wait, wait.” He pulled back, pressing a finger to Grimmjow’s lips and smiled at him. “You’re hurt, we can’t.”

“Do you even know how?”

Ichigo blushed, eyes widening when he realised that being locked in that tower definitely had its disadvantages. He knew nothing of sexual pleasure, except what he could give himself and even then, that was self-taught. He didn’t know how to please someone else, much less have sex with them. “Uh… no.”

“So you know what sex is?”

“Yes!” Ichigo replied haughtily, folding his arms and glared at Grimmjow. “I’m not stupid I learnt what sex was… just not how to do it. It wasn’t proper to teach an eight year old such things and I wasn’t exactly schooled in that tower you know.”

“Then I’ll have to teach you… someday… When you’re old enough.”

“Old enough?!”

It was Grimmjow’s turn to press a finger to Ichigo’s lips. “You’re seventeen, technically not an adult even if you feel like one. I can’t and won’t touch you until you’re of age.”

“This is so unfair!” Ichigo huffed, moving away from Grimmjow to sit next to him. “I’m not a child you know.”

“I know you aren’t.” Grimmjow brushed his hair back and Ichigo slowly turned to face him, expression softening once he placed a soft kiss on his lips. “But I’m twenty four, nearly seven years older than you and I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

“Fine.” Ichigo muttered after a minute, grabbing some clean cloth to continue cleaning Grimmjow. “But my birthday is in a month, so when I turn eighteen….”

“We’ll see.”

“Jeeze you sound like my dad. ‘We’ll see’ always means no.” Ichigo sighed, falling silent for a moment. “I get why you want to wait though, so thanks I guess… for not taking advantage.”

Grimmjow caught his hand, lifting it to place a kiss on the back of it. “I love you.”

Ichigo blushed at hearing the words spoken out loud directly to him. He entwined his fingers with Grimmjow’s, sighing softly. “I love you too.”


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

It had been four weeks now since Ichigo had been brought to the resistance. With each day that passed, he learnt new skills both in combat and leadership. The people of the resistance looked up to him and Ichigo feared that without Renji’s help, he would have failed a long time ago. Without Grimmjow however, Ichigo knew he wouldn’t have even made it a step outside his cell.

Grimmjow was the reason he was there, he was his strength, his reason to push on. The Kingdom needed him to take it back, but without the blue-haired man, Ichigo feared he wouldn’t be able to do it. Not only that, once he was King, would Grimmjow stay with him? After a life in the wild could he settle down as royalty, as the King’s Consort? That was, if they both survived the war.

“What are you thinking about?” Ichigo jerked out of his reverie with a start. He had been sat outside Renji’s house for a while now contemplating the future, if he had one and the silence broken had startled him. He relaxed again when Grimmjow placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze before sitting down next to him with a groan. “You have that expression again, you know thinking too hard is just going to make you worry more.”

“How do you know I’m worrying?”

“Because I know you.” He replied simply, placing a kiss on Ichigo’s forehead and the orange head sighed, leaning against the older man. “So what is it?”

“Nothing.” Ichigo muttered, shifting closer to him. He hadn’t realised how cold it was outside until Grimmjow had sat down next to him. “Just thinking about what’s going to happen.”

Tomorrow was the day, they couldn’t put it off any longer, after all he turned eighteen tomorrow. The Queen would come for him and kill everyone. He looked around the small encampment and sighed again, he couldn’t let that happen, there were children here, families. They needed to take the fight to her, storm the castle, if they had any chance of winning that was it. With any luck the Queen still thought him poisoned and the surprise would throw her off.

“It’s going to be ok, isn’t it?”

Grimmjow frowned and looked down at him, his expression softening slightly. “I don’t know, anything could happen.”

“That doesn’t comfort me.”

“I’m not supposed to comfort you. You need to know what’s going to happen tomorrow. A lot of people are going to die, maybe even you or me. But we’ve got to try, if not she’ll come here and burn this place to the ground.” Ichigo grabbed his shirt and yanked him down, pressing their lips together. “What was that for?”

“I don’t want to think about tomorrow.” Ichigo whispered quietly. “I just want to forget everything, even if it’s for a few hours.”

“What are you asking for?”

Ichigo felt his cheeks warm, thankful it was dark so Grimmjow couldn’t see. “You.” He murmured quietly, looking down at his chest. “I’m eighteen now, or will be in a few hours. If we die tomorrow I don’t want to be parted from you before we do this.” He paused, tugging on the hem of the older man’s shirt. “You know… if you want to?”

“Only if you’re sure, and I mean absolutely sure.”

“I’m sure.” Ichigo nodded, finally looking up to meet Grimmjow’s eyes. “I love you, and I will never feel this way about anyone else. Even if we die tomorrow, I’ll know we had everything.” He stood up, holding out a hand to Grimmjow. “Are you coming?”

Grimmjow took his hand and stood up, pulling Ichigo closer who stumbled in surprise, ending up in the older man’s arms. “Baby that’s what I plan on making you do.” Ichigo’s eyes widened and he quickly looked down as a blush spread quickly across his cheeks and Grimmjow laughed. “You are so innocent, I like it.” He murmured quietly, lifting the blushing teens head to press their lips together. “Come on.” Taking Ichigo’s hand, he led the teen inside back to their room.

…

“So umm…” Ichigo began shyly, looking down at Grimmjow’s bare chest. “That was…” He waved a hand, cringing slightly at how awkward he was making this.

Grimmjow frowned, catching the hand and entwined their fingers. “You didn’t like it?” He asked softly and Ichigo looked up at that, eyes widening in surprise and he quickly shook his head.

“No! I mean yes!” He groaned, hiding his face against the now laughing man’s neck. “I thought it was amazing, and yes, I did enjoy it.” He muttered, shaking his head slightly. “I just don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything.” Grimmjow brushed a strand of his hair back and Ichigo smiled, grabbing the hand to keep it pressed to his face. “It’s one of the things I love about you, that you’re so innocent, that you don’t need words to entice me.”

Ichigo frowned at that, letting go of Grimmjow’s hand and pulled away slightly. “You’ve done this before?” He knew he’d guessed correctly when the man didn’t respond nor meet his eyes. “I’m not your first.”

Grimmjow grabbed his hands when Ichigo started to pull away to keep him in place. “Yes you are. You’re my first love, my only love. Even if you die tomorrow and I don’t, I will never love another like this, I will never be with another like this.”

Ichigo nodded after a moment, allowing Grimmjow to pull him back onto his lap and sighed, hugging the older male tightly. “So… You like it too right?”

“Yes.” Grimmjow chuckled, kissing Ichigo’s head. “No-one can compare to you. You’re my everything Ichigo, I’m fighting for you don’t forget that.” The teen smiled, lifting his head to cup Grimmjow’s face and kissed him. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Ichigo murmured against his lips before sighing, settling into his arms. “Can we just stay here forever? Pretend tomorrow never comes?” Grimmjow just hummed, leaning back as Ichigo started falling asleep. “I don’t want to lose you… I don’t want our first night to be our only night…” He murmured quietly, gripping Grimmjow’s arm suddenly.

“I don’t want it to be either. I can’t promise it won’t be though. Tomorrow will tell, tomorrow fate will decide for us.”

Ichigo snorted. “Fate brought us together remember? We were meant to be, after all you’re my true love. I won’t let the Queen take you from me.” He looked up at Grimmjow and smiled. “I won’t let her win, this Kingdom is mine, it’s time I took it back.”


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

When Ichigo woke up the following morning, he frowned upon finding himself alone and looked around the empty room in confusion. He had been expecting Grimmjow to be there, but realised after a moment a lot needed to be done in preparation for a few hours, when they left for the castle and the man was probably busy setting up, as he should be. With that thought he quickly got up and grabbed his clothes to get ready.

He was just pulling a shirt on when the door opened, jumping when someone grabbed him suddenly. As he pulled his head through the shirt he scowled at Grimmjow who chuckled, kissing his forehead. “Sorry, didn’t mean to make you jump.”

Ichigo just sighed, easily stepping into the man’s arms as though they were two pieces of a puzzle meant to be together. “Where have you been?”

“I got breakfast.” Grimmjow grinned, turning Ichigo around so he could see the tray he brought in. “I hope it’s alright, we don’t have much because we’re leaving soon.”

Ichigo’s expression softened and he sat on the bed, beckoning Grimmjow to join him before picking up a bowl. He had to admit Rukia’s cooking was far better than that of the Tower’s cook, at least this porridge looked and tasted good. “It’s perfect.” He said, quickly spooning some into his mouth. “What needs to be done?”

“Nothing really, you just need to put some armour on. The horses are ready, your swords been sharpened and everyone’s just getting themselves done up now.” Ichigo nodded, finishing off his breakfast.

After a week at the encampment Renji had given him a new sword, this one had been made especially for him. It was similar to his father’s sword, from what he could remember of it, a gold plating ran down the middle of it with the inscription ‘ _The light of day will come’_. Ichigo fell in love with it instantly and much to Renji’s amusement, rarely went anywhere without the blade anymore. The man had to practically wrestle it off him the day before to get it sharpened.

Grimmjow’s sword had been redone too, it now had its own inscription _‘Protection of the heart’_. Apparently it had two meanings, Ichigo’s own heart and the fact that he was supposed to be the Kingdom’s heart and Grimmjow was his guard. Rukia had come up with the two inscriptions and they were the only two swords that currently had one.

Ichigo set the bowl on the side, laughing as he was pushed back on the bed and Grimmjow’s lips found his own. “What was that for?” He asked when they parted, grinning as one of Grimmjow’s hands pulled his shirt up slightly to expose his stomach.

“No reason.” Was the reply he received and the blue haired man looked down, sighing softly before gently touching his stomach. “You know, when we first met you were so thin, almost like a skeleton, hell your arm fitted through those bars. Now though, you look a lot better.”

After finding the resistance Ichigo had been getting regular meals which he could eat his full of. Along with training he quickly built up some muscle and had gained weight and was now a regular size. “Yes well, add that to the many things that I have you to thank for.” Pushing himself up on his elbows, he kissed Grimmjow again and pulled him back down onto the bed. “How long do we have?”

“Maybe a half hour, if we’re lucky.”

“Then shut up and kiss me.” Ichigo grabbed his shirt, pulling Grimmjow back down again.

…

Half an hour later Ichigo was stood in the small makeshift armoury of the camp. It wasn’t much bit it did the job and everyone who was going to fight was ready and armed. Ichigo tried to object, but they had made his armour a lot more protective than the rest, and it was embroided with the original insignia of the Kingdom, a half crescent moon carved into the chest plate.

Once he was fully suited and given his sword, Ichigo left to find Grimmjow who was with their horses. Grimmjow appraised him before giving a nod of approval, turning back to the horses to tighten the straps. “Good, the armour fits then.”

Ichigo huffed, setting his sword down and took his horse, which he had named Shiro due to its unusual white colour. “It’s bulky and heavy, I can’t even walk straight.”

Grimmjow laughed, turning to raise an eyebrow at the teen, he too was wearing armour. “You’ll have to get used to it and hey, it might save your life so don’t complain.”

“We’ll make it through this, right?” Ichigo asked quietly and for a few minutes it was silent as Grimmjow thought of an answer.

“I don’t know.” He replied finally, finishing his horse, which was called Pantera, and moved to help Ichigo. “But I promise I’ll try to stay alive, just for you.”

Ichigo smiled, stepping closer to him and covered his hand in his own. He looked up at Grimmjow and their eyes locked, an understanding passing between the two, that this might be the last time they stand together talking freely, that one or maybe both of them could die in the next few hours. Grimmjow’s fingers threaded in Ichigo’s hair, his palm resting against the teen’s cheek and Ichigo sighed, closing his eyes and leant into the hand.

“I love you, never forget that.” Grimmjow murmured as his thumb stroked Ichigo’s cheek.

“I love you too.” He replied, leaning up to kiss Grimmjow quickly. With a reluctant sigh he parted from the man and left him to the horses to go find Renji who was rallying everyone up. “Hey, how is everything?”

The red head turned to greet him and grinned. “Everything’s almost ready, we’ll be ready to go in about ten minutes. What about you?”

Ichigo nodded, looking around at the people running about to get the last minute jobs done. “Yeah, I’m ready. Grimmjow’s got our horses, just need to get going now.”

“Alright, well I’m going to say my goodbyes and then I’ll join you.” Renji left to find his family and Ichigo made his way back to Grimmjow. He made a promise to himself on the way to make sure Renji survived. He had a wife and child, a child he’d only just met, to come back to, he needed to come back to them.

“Come on then.” Grimmjow gave him a leg up onto the horse and Ichigo grabbed the reins to hold Shiro steady. He’d spent a week doing intensive training to get his horse riding skills up to scratch. It was surprising really that he had taken to Shiro, and the horse to him, apparently Shiro didn’t like anyone, and Ichigo was his first owner. The young stallion neighed, pawing the ground impatiently so Ichigo gave him a quick pat on the neck. “All good?”

Ichigo nodded in reply and Grimmjow mounted his own horse before moving to stand next to him. “Let’s get this going then.” Ichigo muttered and with a deep sigh they left to join the others and start their journey towards the castle.

…

The sun was up high in the sky by the time they reached the castle, the air still as if waiting for battle to begin. Their small party came to a halt atop a large hill leading down the castle which stood in the valley below. From where they were stood the castle looked empty, but Ichigo knew they were preparing for war, preparing for their assault.

Ichigo sighed deeply, looking at Grimmjow who reached out to give his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “I got your back, no matter what.”

“I know.” He sighed again, turning to face their small army and swallowed nervously before addressing them. “I know many of you are worried about what will happen today, if we succeed. But I can tell you this, the Queen can’t win against us. No matter how big her army or how strong her fortress, we have something she will never have. We have each other, our families and our Kingdom to fight for. Are you ready?” He was met by a chorus of cheers and Ichigo smiled, catching Grimmjow’s eyes who also grinned. “Loves ones will be lost, but they won’t die in vain. They will be honoured by those who survive, they will be the heroes of the new age. It’s time to take our Kingdom back, are you with me?”

Another chorus of cheers and Ichigo nodded, turning back to the castle. “Ready?” Grimmjow asked, moving to his side and Ichigo nodded, gripping Shiro’s reigns tightly. “I’ll be with you, every step of the way.”

“Good, I’m going to need your help.” Ichigo looked up at the man and smiled softly. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Shiro neighed, tossing his head and Ichigo had to turn his attention to the horse to steady him. “Let’s get this done.” He muttered, unsheathing his sword and pointed it at the castle. In that moment Ichigo realised he wasn’t just a lost teenager anymore, he was the Prince of Zangetsu again, and it was time he took the title back.

With that thought in mind he led their small army down to the castle and they broke through into the courtyard. The Queen’s guards hadn’t had enough time to prepare sufficient defences which was a major advantage to them. The courtyard was almost empty and they had it secured relatively quickly, with only a few losses. But there was no time to grieve at the present, they still had a long way to go.

Ichigo dismounted from Shiro, giving him a grateful pat and grinned when he got a nose bump in return. He turned to see Grimmjow was walking over and sighed in relief, the man had a scratch running down his cheek, but other than that looked alright.

“Remember the way to the throne room? Bet you anything that’s where the Queen is.”

Ichigo frowned, taking in the courtyard and it took him a moment to remember before pointing up a set of steps in the centre. “There, I remember.”

“Let’s go then.”

Ichigo nodded, giving Renji a quick smile who nodded in return before going back to keeping the courtyard as their own. As for now Renji was the Lieutenant of sorts, as the leader of the Resistance the men listened to him so Ichigo knew they were in safe hands whilst he left to find the Queen.

Grimmjow followed behind him as they made their way up the stairs and down a corridor. “Ichigo, I need to ask you for a favour.”

“Yeah?”

“When we find Ulquiorra, leave him to me ok?” Ichigo stopped, turning to look at the older man questioningly. “He’s the one that killed my father.” He nodded when remembering what Grimmjow had told him about that day.

“Ok. Shit hide!” He shoved Grimmjow into a side corridor as footsteps approached and several guards ran past back towards the courtyard. As the sounds died away, they continued through the castle. “Thank god for Renji.” Ichigo muttered. The man was creating a good distraction back in the courtyard that all the Queens guards were focused on the Resistance there, unaware of Ichigo and Grimmjow making their way towards the Throne Room.

It seemed Renji was putting up a good fight, they ran into no one else on their way through the castle. As they neared the Throne Room, Ichigo became aware how increasingly nervous he was. Could he defeat the Queen with what training he had? And if he didn’t, what would happen to everyone? What did the Queen want him for?

He came to an abrupt halt as they turned the corridor where the doors to the Throne Room were, Ulquiorra was stood outside and he looked surprised to see Ichigo. “He’s mine.” Grimmjow growled, stepping between the two as Ulquiorra drew his sword and Ichigo stepped back as the two started fighting. Grimmjow pushed the man away from the door, managing a quick glance at Ichigo. “Go!” He yelled and Ichigo nodded, opening the door and headed inside.

Ichigo paused as the door shut behind him, a soft exhale leaving him as he looked around. The room hadn’t changed s fare as he could tell, but it was darker, the Queen had changed the heavy curtains which were now black and blocked out the sunlight, the only light in the room coming from the flickering candles. Ichigo looked around, slowly moving across the room, he couldn’t see the Queen, maybe she wasn’t here after all.

“So you managed to break the spell?” Ichigo jumped, whirling around but he couldn’t see her, her voice just echoed bodiless around the room. “So you found your true love? Not that it matters, you will both die here today.” Ichigo whirled around again as he heard footsteps, taking up a defensive stance as the Queen materialised out of the darkness. She held no weapon and was smiling at him, but this just made Ichigo feel even more afraid.

“You can’t have me.” His grip tightened on his sword as she walked closer until they were a few meters apart. “I won’t let you have me!” He yelled, lunging forward and swung his sword but the Queen drew a small, dagger like sword from under her robes to block the attack. Their battle didn’t last long, his inexperience was no match for what the Queen had mastered long ago.

“You’ve been mine since I first laid eyes on you.” The dagger cut into his arm and Ichigo gasped, dropping his sword as the pain shot up his arm, she wasn’t using any normal dagger. She grabbed him by the throat and grinned again.

“What do you want me for?” He gasped, trying to release himself from her grip but he couldn’t.

“I want your heart.” She replied in a sweet sickly voice, grip tightening and he choked. “The purest heart in all the lands, your finally of age to maximise my powers. With this I can rule not just this Kingdom, but the world.” With surprising strength, she threw Ichigo across the room and he hit the wall with a loud thump before falling to the floor winded.

Pushing himself up, Ichigo looked up as the door opened and he could just make out Grimmjow who stumbled into the room. He too also looked wounded and he seemed to have a large cut on his face, Ichigo couldn’t tell because his vision was blurry. “S-stop.” He gasped, managing to sit up and held up his hand. “Stop!” Grimmjow stopped abruptly and frowned at him. After a few tries Ichigo was on his feet and stumbling towards him.

“Ichigo…” Grimmjow reached out to catch him but as their fingers brushed the Queen reappeared, grabbing the older male and pressed the dagger to his throat.

“One more step Ichigo, and I’ll kill him.” She warned the orange head who did as told and stopped, swaying slightly on the spot. When he’d hit the wall he’d taken some damage to his head and now Ichigo was finding it hard to focus on the two in front of him, not that he could do much anyway, his sword lay forgotten behind him and he’d never reach it in time. “Good boy, now behave and stay there and I’ll let your friend here go.”

Ichigo nodded, dropping his arms and left his defensive stance. Grimmjow however glared at him. “Ichigo you idiot, don’t-” He never finished the sentence as the Queen pressed the dagger closer to his neck, enough to cause him to bleed.

“Stop it!” Ichigo cried out, his hands balling into fists and the Queen smirked, lowering the dagger. Ichigo couldn’t remember a time he’d ever felt so helpless, so trapped, not even being locked in the tower compared to the fear he felt with Grimmjow’s life in her hands. “Let him go!”

“But of course.” She struck him over the head and Grimmjow fell to the floor unconscious, before Ichigo could make his way towards the man the Queen bound him inside a circle and he couldn’t move. “The time has finally come, I’ve waited long enough for this moment.” She undid the cloak and it dropped to the floor, revealing the blood red dress she wore underneath, Ichigo would almost call her beautiful if it wasn’t for the power hungry expression she wore when looking at him.

She stepped inside the circle and grabbed Ichigo’s chin, forcing his head upwards and with one strike of her hand, his chest armour was destroyed and the remnants crashed to the floor. Pressing her hand to his chest, she began speaking in a foreign language words Ichigo didn’t understand but he could feel her hand digging into his chest. It felt as if she was reaching inside him and he could fell her fingers closing around his heart. Letting out a choked gasp, Ichigo grabbed her arm, but couldn’t pull it away, the grip on his neck tightened and he couldn’t breathe.

Ichigo’s eyes had just closed when he heard someone groan and he force them open again to see Grimmjow had regained consciousness and was starting to kneel. His eyes opened and their gazes met and Ichigo saw the way the man’s jaw clenched, saw him grab his sword. “No…” He gasped, the Queen laughing when she thought he was addressing her.

“It’s too late Ichigo, nothing can stop me now.”

“Bitch, you’re forgetting something.” Her eyes widened suddenly when Grimmjow thrust his sword forward through her stomach and the spell broke. As the Queen fell to the floor her grip on Ichigo loosened and he stumbled back, Grimmjow catching him before he could fall too. “I’ve got you Ichigo.”

“Stupid idiot, she could have killed you.” Ichigo muttered weakly, gripping his shirt tightly as the man laughed.

“She was killing you, I had to do something.”

Ichigo smiled, lifting his head to look at him but his eyes widened when he saw the Queen behind them. “Down!” He yelled, giving Grimmjow a shove and they toppled to the floor, Ichigo rolling away from him across the room. “Grimmjow?” He asked, sitting up and looked around, sighing in relief when he saw the man was unharmed but seemed to have been knocked unconscious again. He stood up, looking around the rest of the room but the Queen had disappeared. Spotting his sword lying discarded on the floor he started towards it but the Queen suddenly appeared in front of him and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him up so his feet were no longer on the ground.

She no longer held the illusion of beauty, the dress was ruined and stained with blood, torn around her midsection, her hair wild and her eyes had taken on a dangerous glint bordering crazy. Ichigo’s hand tugged at her own but to no avail, her grip just tightened and Ichigo found he couldn’t breathe again.

“You can’t stop me, you can’t kill me! No mere mortal could ever destroy me!” She laughed, throwing Ichigo aside and as he lifted his head, he saw his sword close by and began crawling towards it. “It’s over Ichigo, admit defeat and face your destiny.” His fingers closed around his sword as the Queen’s shadow hovered over him. “Time to die!” Ichigo rolled over, thrusting his sword upwards and it pierced the Queen’s chest.

“I told you.” He huffed, pushing it further upwards and she gasped, grabbing the edge but no longer had the strength to stop him. “You can’t have me!” With one final push the Queen had toppled over and she fell to Ichigo’s side finally dead. Ichigo huffed loudly, forcing himself up into a sitting position and pulling his sword free, used it to help him stand. “Grimmjow…” He muttered, stumbling towards the man and dropped next to him, turning him over and laughed when he found him breathing. “Come on, wake up.” He gave Grimmjow a good shake and the man groaned, eyes opening to look at him in confusion.

“Ichigo? What happened?” He sat up suddenly and looked around. “The Queen, where is she?”

“Dead, she’s dead.” Ichigo sighed, resting his fingers against Grimmjow’s cheek. “It’s over, we won.” Ichigo didn’t know how to feel about that, the flood of emotions he was feeling quickly overwhelmed him and Grimmjow frowned, brushing the tears away as the fell down his cheeks.

“Oh Ichigo.” He sighed, pulling the teen closer and he let out a quiet sob and quickly buried himself in the older man’s arms. “It’s ok now, no-one will hurt you ever again, I promise.”

“I killer her, I killed someone Grimmjow. All those guards, I killed them too.” Ichigo pulled back, looking down at his shaking hands and clenched them. “How can I live with myself?”

“Don’t do that to yourself.” Grimmjow told him sternly, giving him a quick shake. “You saved us, everyone. If you didn’t kill her then she would’ve killed you and everyone else in this Kingdom that you love. Renji, Rukia and their child, the Resistance. All those families and children are now safe because of you. You’re a hero.”

“Why don’t I feel like one then?” Grimmjow sighed, having no answer to that and pulled Ichigo closer which comforted the orange head anyway. “I want to go home.” He murmured, pulling out of Grimmjow’s arms and stood up to help the other up. “Let’s go to my room and just hide away for a bit, I just want to forget this.”

Grimmjow smiled, kissing his head quickly. “You know we can’t, not yet anyway. We need to find Renji, hopefully he’s still alive. They need to know the Queen’s dead.” Ichigo shook his head, burying it in Grimmjow’s chest again. “Ok, ok. I’ll take you to your room and then find Renji. I’ll have to leave you though.”

Ichigo’s grip tightened on his arm and after a moment he sighed deeply, closing his eyes to compose himself. “I’m fine, let’s find Renji. I want this to be over as soon as possible.”

“Come on.” Grimmjow’s fingers entwined with his and he let the older man lead the way from the room and back to the courtyard to find Renji.

The battle was over outside as well, the Resistance had won but with a heavy loss. Most of the men had died, only a fifth of them remained and just as Ichigo was beginning to lose hope, Renji came running over. “You did it?” He asked, laughing joyously when Ichigo nodded. “Yes! I knew you could!” He grabbed Ichigo in a tight hug before quickly stepping back and cleared his throat. “Sorry, we’ve been waiting for this so long and now it’s finally over.”

Ichigo just nodded again and the red head frowned, going to comment on his unusually quiet behaviour when Grimmjow grabbed his arm, shaking his head. “Ichigo’s been through a lot, he almost died. Have you got things out here?”

“Yeah, yeah we should be fine.” He gave Ichigo a bracing smile and patted his back. “Go rest ok? I’ll wake you if something happens.”

“I’m taking him up to his room, you know where we’ll be?” When Renji nodded Grimmjow took Ichigo’s hand again, leading him upstairs to his room.

As the door opened Ichigo looked around the familiar room, it seemed the Queen had left it untouched for some reason. There were still toys littered on the floor covered in dust from a decade of abandonment. The sight brought yet more tears to his eyes and Grimmjow quickly pulled him closer, leading him to the bed. “Stay here, I’ll be back in a moment.” He murmured, sitting the teen on the old covers.

After he had left, Ichigo opened the drawers next to his bed and picked up a photo frame inside. The contents were less dusty due to being hidden away and he could still see the picture clearly. It was one of his father and mother, taken weeks before he was born, before she died. They were grinning happily, the painter had put a lot of effort into this small portrait which was good since it was probably the only one left of the King and Queen now. Ichigo ran his thumb over it and blinked quickly to prevent tears falling onto it.

“I hope I’ve made you proud, no matter what I’ve had to do. I’ll restore your Kingdom to what it was, no-one will have to live in fear anymore, I promise.” The door opened and he set the frame on top of the drawers as Grimmjow returned carrying fresh cloth for the bed. Standing up, he quickly pulled the old sheets off and dropped them on the floor, they could wait until morning for cleaning.

Grimmjow made the bed up again and sat Ichigo down on it once it was done. “Go to sleep, I promise I won’t leave your side. If Renji comes I’ll wake you, ok?” Ichigo nodded, curling up in the soft sheets and sighed, grabbing Grimmjow’s arm suddenly when he pulled away. “Get in the bed Grimmjow.” He murmured and after a moment’s hesitation the man removed his armour, climbing in behind him. Ichigo turned, snuggling closer to his side and smiled. “I love you.”

“I love you too Ichigo.” And those were the last words he heard before falling asleep.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

Ichigo woke up to find it was dark, either late at night or early the next morning, he couldn’t tell. Rolling over, he sighed in relief to find Grimmjow sleeping soundly next to him. He sat up slowly as to wake him and walked quietly towards the balcony doors. Fiddling with the key in the darkness, Ichigo swung the doors open and shivered as they cold air hit him, wrapping his arms around himself before stepping outside.

The night was silent and looking down, Ichigo had a clear view of the courtyard and he could see there was several makeshift tents set up, a few small fires still flickering in the darkness. Blowing out a breath, he watched as the mist formed from his mouth disappeared before rubbing his head and squeezing his eyes shut.

He was still exhausted but sleeping was pointless now. Even after he’d fallen asleep, it wasn’t restful. Ichigo couldn’t stop thinking about the Queen and absentmindedly, he rubbed his chest just above his heart. It still ached slightly and his dreams had been full of darkness, the Queen flitting in and out of them, taunting him.

"Hey, what’s wrong?” Ichigo jumped, spinning around quickly to see Grimmjow was sitting up and blinking sleepily at him. He smiled as the man yawned, running a hand through his sleep tousled hair. Returning to the room, Ichigo shut the door carefully before climbing back into the bed and into Grimmjow’s arms. “Can’t sleep?”

Ichigo shook his head, burying it closer to Grimmjow’s chest with a heavy sigh. “She’s in my dreams too, laughing at me.”

Grimmjow sighed as well, running a hand through Ichigo’s hair. “She’s gone Ichi, that woman can't hurt you anymore.” “Grimmjow I need you to do something for me, no questions asked alright?” He asked, sitting up so their eyes met. When he nodded in reply, Ichigo leant down to press their lips together. “Make love to me.”

"Are you sure?”

Ichigo smiled. “I’ve never been so sure of something in my life.” His smile widened as he was lowered onto the bed and his fingers linked with Grimmjow’s above his head. “I love you. But I need one more favour.”

“Mmm, and what's that?” His voice dropping as he started kissing Ichigo’s neck, his fingers finding the hem of the teen’s shirt. “I’ll give you the world if that's what you want.”

He laughed at that, threading his hand in Grimmjow’s hair to pull him up and their eyes met again. “I don't want the world, I only want you to stay with me.”

"What makes you think I wouldn't stay?” Grimmjow’s face was marred now by a frown as he looked at Ichigo in confusion.

“It’s just…” Ichigo paused and sighed, his fingers tightening on the others shirt. “You’ve never settled down anywhere have you and I don't want you to leave me. I know being with me isn't going to be easy, especially because I'm the Prince… But I don't want to lose you. Does it make me a bad person for asking you to stay?”

Grimmjow's expression softened at his words and he smiled, running a hand through Ichigo’s hair before pressing their foreheads together. “I'm not going to leave you Ichi, ever. This may sound stupid but I think it was fate I found you in that tower. I mean, after all I was supposed to become your personal guard and here am I, after everything and that's what I am.”

Ichigo relaxed and smiled before shaking his head. “You're not my guard.”

"Well I ain't going to be your princess.”

He laughed kissing Grimmjow again. “No you're my consort.” At the mans confused look he elaborated. “Like my Queen, but y’know, a guy.”

Grimmjow snorted. “I like the sound of that better than ‘Queen’. So…” He began, raising an eyebrow and ran his hands down the teens hips, grinning when he shivered. “You want to get married huh?”

Ichigo's eyes widened and he blushed, looking down to avoid meeting Grimmjow’s gaze and he knew the man was now smirking. “Well yeah… One day… Don't you?”

“I dunno…” He trailed off, chuckling softly when Ichigo looked up at him with wide eyes. “I'm messing with you. So did you just propose?”

“N-no!” Ichigo spluttered, trying to pull away but Grimmjow’s arms around him didn't allow much space for movement.

"Shame, I would’ve said yes.”

“No you wouldn't have, don't lie.”

Ichigo punched him lightly on the chest, a small smile playing on his lips. He trailed his fingers down the older mans chest, catching the buttons on the way down to open it. “Now shut up and kiss me.”

Grimmjow did as told, pulling him into another kiss. “Don't worry Ichigo, I’ll make you forget everything for the rest of the night, don't you worry.”

"I'm counting on it.”

…

When dawn broke early the next morning, the first rays from the shone shone through the window into Ichigo’s room, waking the sleeping teen who groaned. “Damn, I forgot about the sun in the morning.” With a heavy sigh he got up and stumbled to the balcony doors and drew the curtains, coughing as he was showered in dust. “Shit!”

Giving himself a shake, Ichigo turned to the bed and raised an eyebrow when he saw Grimmjow was still fast asleep. It was then he realised when he'd gotten up he'd pulled the blankets down and they were now pooled around the mans waist. Letting out a soft sigh, Ichigo had to close his eyes and clench his fists for a moment to regain control of himself.

Apparently being locked up for almost a decade with no physical contact did wonders to your sex drive.

Returning to the bed, he paused and looked at the drawers. After a moments hesitation Ichigo opened it and pulled out a fine silver chain from which a silver ring hung. He still remembered the day his father gave it to him, making him swear to give it to the only one he would ever love, that it was his mothers and one day, his wife would wear it too.

Ichigo snorted, looking at Grimmjow again. Would his father be proud of him? For loving a man, not even of royal blood. Would he have given them consent if the Queen hadn't killed him and changed all of their lives? It was questions that he'd never know the answer too but Ichigo hoped his father would be proud.

Gripping the ring tightly, he pulled it free from the chain before sitting down next to Grimmjow, reaching out to shake his shoulder. “Grimmjow?”

"Mmm?” He rolled over, cracking an eye open to look at Ichigo. “What?”

“I uh, have something to ask you.” Grimmjow frowned and sat up, looking at him expectantly, well half expectantly since he'd only just woken up. “What you said last night, about saying yes if I had proposed… Did you mean it?”

Grimmjow’s frown deepened and it took him a few moments to respond. Ichigo could feel his heart beating erratically in his chest and his hand was started to get warm from clenching the ring in it so tightly. “Yeah, why?”

“Because I love you, and I want to marry you.” Ichigo paused, taking a shaky breath. “I know we haven't know each other all that long. But I know I will always love you, you're my true love. Without you none of this would be possible, I would be dead, we all would be dead. Without you their wouldn't be any light left in the world.”

"What are you trying to say?”

"Sorry I'm going off topic a bit, nerves.” He laughed, shaking his head. “What I'm trying to say, well ask really is… Will you marry me?” Ichigo held out his hand abruptly, almost smacking Grimmjow in the face but he ducked in time. “Sorry! Oh shit I'm sorry.”

Grimmjow rolled his eyes, looking down at the ring his hand before back to his face. “You're serious?” He asked and Ichigo nodded. Taking Ichigo's hand in his own, Grimmjow smiled. “Then yes, I will.”

Ichigo blew out a relieved breath and grinned, launching himself into the older mans arms. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to almost punch you.” He murmured into the man’s shoulder, feeling his cheeks starting to warm with embarrassment. “Guess I can't get anything right huh?”

"Well as long as you don't try to stab me or something at the wedding, I'll forgive you.”

“Deal.” Ichigo grinned and opened his hand again. “Give me your hand.” He managed to out the run on without a hitch, which he was relieved about. “So um, what now?”

Grimmjow rolled his eyes, kissing the top of his head. “You need to become king first of all, and then we'll talk about weddings.”

Ichigo nodded quickly, his throat going dry. “Let's put that on hold for now, I'm not ready to be King yet.”

"Ichigo…”

"I mean there's a lot that needs to be done first. We need to clean this land of the Queen’s forces, including those monsters in the forest. We need to find everyone in hiding. We need to empty the prison, we need to rebuild-”

Grimmjow cut him off with a firm kiss to the lips. “And we will, but the people will follow you better if you were their King, not their exiled Prince.” Seeing Ichigo face pale, he smiled reassuringly. “Don't worry Ichi, I'm right here and Renji will be too, all of us will help you.”

"I'm not a King.” He replied quietly, looking down and he bit his lip. “I can't be their King.”

“Yes you can.” Grimmjow replied firmly. “You were the one to lead us into battle, you were the one who defeated the Queen, you saved the kingdom. Yes we helped you, but it wouldn't have been possible without you. This kingdom is nothing without you, without its King.”

Ichigo remained silent for a good few minutes before taking a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right, of course you're right. But let's just start with cleaning up the castle for now, ok?”

“Alright.” Grimmjow stood up helping Ichigo to his feet as well before grabbing his clothes to change. “But you can't avoid it forever you know. You can't escape fate.”

Ichigo smiled softly and looked at the older man. “I know, I found you didn't I?”

"Actually I found you, now shut up and change.” He threw a shirt at the orange head who caught it and pulled it on.

“The point is I'm not running from this anymore.” Ichigo grabbed his hands suddenly and leaned towards him for a quick kiss. “I know who I am and I'm not afraid to be me any longer. No one will ever hold that kind of power over me again, no one can destroy this kingdom again, I won't let them.”

Grimmjow smiled, kissing him again. “Good, there's the King everyone's been waiting for, ready?”

Ichigo looked at the bedroom door which lead to his future, his people and his kingdom. It was his job now to rule over them and keep them safe and he was ready for it. He was no longer afraid to take over his father’s reign. “I'm ready, as long as you're by my side then I can do anything.” He smiled at Grimmjow who grinned back and opened the door. “Let's go.”


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

_*One Year Later*_

The morning was bright and cool when it dawned, a cool breeze preventing the summer sun heating the castle up too much. Ichigo had been awake for a few hours now, waking before the sun had risen and couldn’t get back to sleep. He had been planning the day for months now, and it was hard work keeping it a secret from Grimmjow, who was always aware when Ichigo was lying or planning something. Needless to say, it had taken a lot of effort and distractions to keep the man busy and unable to figure out what was happening.

Ichigo was currently making his way through the castle, back to his chambers where Grimmjow was presumably still sleeping. The castle itself had only recently been fully refurbished. After the Queen’s reign it had fallen into disrepair, the only part that was kept clean was the throne room and her chambers, which Ichigo had refused to move into, even if it was technically his chambers now.

He had been crowned the King two weeks after the battle, Grimmjow insisting it needed to be done, much to his own hesitation. But now he realised it wasn’t that bad, sure people in the street would bow to him and use all these grand titles which would make him blush and become flustered, but Grimmjow was always there to help him out and in the privacy of the castle, his friends never used titles. To them he was the same person they’d met at the resistance camp and for this, he was thankful.

Those who had survived the battle were knighted after Ichigo became the king, Renji was his most trusted supervisor, aside from Grimmjow but he didn’t really count since he was the King’s Consort. The Kingdom had taken that well too, there wasn’t much complaint about Ichigo’s choice in suitor, but then again most were happy to be free from the Queen and weren’t going to complain now Ichigo was in charge. One day he would have to make an heir, both himself and Grimmjow knew that, but for now that was far into the future and they had plenty of time to discuss how they went about it.

Upon reaching their chamber, Ichigo opened the door quietly and snuck inside. Just as predicted Grimmjow was still sleeping, the man never woke up early. His room had been one of the first to be refurbished, much to his protests but no-one listened to him, apparently his needs were greater than anyone else’s. But once it was done, Ichigo made sure the other rooms in the castle were the next to be redone for the steady inflow of people now returning to the castle as rumours spread pf the Queen’s demise.

Creeping up next to the bed, he sat down gently, a smile pulling at his lips when the man sleeping didn’t even stir. “Grimmjow…” He called lightly scooting closer to him and lay down on his stomach, propping his head up with his hands. “Come on lazy ass, time to get up!” He gave Grimmjow a thump on the chest which did the trick and the man opened his eyes, narrowing them as he focused on Ichigo.

“I swear to god if you’ve woken me up because you’re horny, I will kill you.” He muttered, letting out a heavy sigh before covering his face with an arm. “What’s wrong?” “Why does something have to be wrong?” Ichigo asked, shifting closer to pull his arm away and reveal his face. “Maybe I just wanted to wake you to say we’ve got a busy day ahead. So get up and get changed, or else we’re going to miss half the day at this rate.” Placing a chaste kiss upon Grimmjow’s lips, Ichigo stood again, grinning and the confused look he now wore. “What? Hurry up because I’ll leave without you and then you can come and find me yourself. But that might be difficult since no-one knows where we’re going.”

“Are you sure that’s wise? The King disappearing for a whole day along with his Consort and no-one knows where?”

“Ok fine, Renji knows so it’s fine. Now hurry up, I’ll meet you downstairs.” Ichigo left to go out to the courtyard, he had persuaded his red-headed friend to prepare their horses which were now stood waiting once he arrived. “Thanks Renji.” He took Shiro’s reigns from the man who looked at him suspiciously.

“So Rukia gave me this,” He held up a picnic basket before securing it to Shiro. “What are you planning?”

Ichigo shrugged, flashing a grin at his friend. “Nothing, I just wanted to get away for a day that’s all. You going to be ok if I leave you in charge?”

“Sure, I promise not to star a revolution.” Renji grinned as well before nodding to the castle steps. “Looks like someone decided to finally join us. Don’t tell me he was asleep and you had to wake him?”

“When do I not?” Ichigo mounted Shiro, pulling the reins to keep him steady as Grimmjow joined them, taking Pantera from Renji who nodded at Ichigo and left. “Ready?” “Sure, so going to tell me where we’re going?” “Nope, try to keep up.” Ichigo blew him a kiss before winking and took off, Shiro happily galloping out of the castle grounds and into the forest. Ichigo let out a loud laugh as they tore through the forest, he could hear Grimmjow not to far behind him. One of the few downsides to being King was that he was very rarely alone, there was always some sort of guard with him. This was probably one of the few times he had been alone, excusing Grimmjow, for a very long time.

After ten minutes, they slowed down, giving Grimmjow time to catch up to his side. “So, will you tell me now?”

“No, wait and see.” He rolled his eyes as the other huffed, Grimmjow wasn’t a man of patience. The forests of the Kingdom were now safe once again, the nightmarish creatures either disappearing after the Queen’s defeat or hunted down by Ichigo’s newly appointed guards.”Ok, just through here.” Ichigo had been making several trips during the past few months and now knew this area like the back of his hand.

They passed through the remaining trees before coming into a large clearing, a small bank before them which lead to a lake. This place was the most beautiful location Ichigo could ever remember being, his childhood was nothing more than a few blurry memories now so for all he knew, he had been here years before. Dismounting from Shiro, he grabbed the basket before letting the horse go who moved to graze on the fresh grass a few yards away, Pantera soon joining him. “What do you think?” He asked, turning to face Grimmjow who was still looking around.

“How did you find this place? You know what, never mind, it’s amazing.” Ichigo grinned, moving to take his hand in his own and pulled him towards the waters edge. A couple of meters away, Ichigo grabbed the blanket stored on top of the basket and laid it down before sitting, patting the spot next to him and Grimmjow quickly joined him. “So what’s this in aid of?”

“Do you know how long it’s been since we took back the Kingdom?” He asked and Grimmjow shook his head. “A year today.” He paused, looking out at the lake and snorted softly. “I didn’t even think I would survive my eighteenth birthday, let alone live to see my nineteenth.”

Grimmjow grabbed his hand, lifting it to place a kiss on his palm. “Happy birthday Ichi.”

“You forgot, didn’t you.” Ichigo stated, eying him suspiciously and after a moment, Grimmjow looked away and cleared his throat, confirming it. “Well I don’t want anything anyway. I’ve already got my present, just you and me for a whole day. No duties, no responsibilities, no titles, just Ichigo and Grimmjow.”

“I like the sound of that.” Laying down, he pulled Ichigo down next to him and began twirling a lock of his hair between his fingers. “Want to go swimming?” He asked after a few moments and Ichigo sat up, turning to grin at him.

“I thought you’d never ask.” Standing up, he quickly removed his shirt, trousers soon following and after a coy smile at Grimmjow, his underwear followed and he jumped into the water. Thankfully because of the warm days, the lake was warm and pleasant. Surfacing he looked up to see Grimmjow wading over to him with a raised eyebrow.

“I said swimming, not skinny dipping.”

Ichigo just stuck his tongue out in response, pushing his hair back to see properly. “Who cares, it’s not as if anyone’s around to see.” He swam over to the other, hooking his arms around his neck. “And who am I to pass up on getting you naked.”

“Oh really, so today isn’t just about relaxing then, you want to have sex too?”

“I don’t see a problem with that.” He leaned forward to kiss the older man, humming as his arms circled his waist to keep him above water. “I love you, and I will never tire of being with you. Even when we’re old and grey, I will still want you.”

“Shut up Ichi, you’ll never be old.”

“Actually I’m glad I’ll get the chance to be. I have all these years to look forward to, so many I didn’t think I’d ever see. Even better I can spend them with you.” Tangling his fingers in Grimmjow’s hair, Ichigo pulled him into another kiss, this one far more passionate than the last. “Ok, we can swim later, right now I need you.”

He grabbed Grimmjow’s hand, leading him back to their blanket and lay down, the older man kneeling above him. “Ichigo.” He sighed, his hands teasing over the teen’s hips. “You know I will never tire of you either, you are so damn insatiable and I’ll be the only one to ever see you like this.”

“I don’t want anyone else Grimm, I only want you.” His fingers found Grimmjow’s hair again and he pulled him into another kiss. “Make love to me.” Ichigo whispered quietly as their eyes met and Grimmjow smiled, leaning down to kiss him again.

…

When Ichigo woke from his daze and rolled over, he could see the sun was high in the sky so it must have been around mid-day. A low rumble from his stomach confirmed this. With a groan he sat up, expression softening when he saw the food was already laid out and he could see Grimmjow was currently giving their horses something to eat too. He turned and saw Ichigo was awake, giving Pantera a pat before rejoining the orange head. “You’re awake then?”

Ichigo rolled his eyes, grabbing some bread. “I wasn’t sleeping.”

“Ok, but you sure as hell were at least dozing, don’t even try to deny it” He silenced Ichigo’s retort with a firm kiss before getting some food for himself. “You know, I wouldn’t mind doing this more often.”

Ichigo munched on his food for a moment before replying. “Well we could make it a monthly thing I guess, I’m sure Renji’s up to being in charge that often. That is, if he hasn’t destroyed the castle when we return later.”

“He’s a big boy, he’ll be fine for a day.” Grimmjow leaned forward and covered his eyes suddenly. “Don’t struggle, just open your mouth.” Ichigo frowned, opening it after a moments hesitation, after all what was the worst he could do? Grimmjow placed something in his mouth and he bit it, pleasantly surprised to find it was a strawberry, when his hand was removed and he could open his eyes again, he saw the bowl full of the fruit and grinned.

Grabbing one, he placed it against Grimmjow’s lips, raising an eyebrow expectantly and after an eye roll, the man complied and ate it. “Good?”

“Yeah, but not as sweet as you.” Ichigo felt his cheeks flush slightly, but ignored it in favour of kissing Grimmjow chastely.

“Stop being such a sap.” He took another strawberry as it was offered to him and ate it. “You know, maybe we should build a little hut or something down here. That would be cool, like a holiday home or something.” He pointed across the bank to a large open, flat area. “There looks like a good spot, what do you think?”

“Whatever you want Ichi, we can build a place down here. It might take a while, but we’ll get it done.” Placing the now empty bowl down, Grimmjow stood and stretched. “I know you’re looking.” He added, even though his eyes were closed and he grinned when Ichigo huffed.

“Shut up, I’m allowed to look. I am married to you after all.” Ichigo folded his arms, looking at him petulantly.

“That doesn’t work on me, it just makes you look cuter.” Grimmjow laughed as Ichigo’s eyes widened, his cheeks now burning red and he quickly turned away to hide it. Kneeling next to the teen, he cupped his cheeks to turn his face and their eyes met. "I love you.”

“I love you too.” Ichigo mumbled, leaning forward to kiss him. “You coming in the water?” He asked, standing and walked over to the lake’s edge before turning back to look at him questioningly.

Grimmjow shook his head. “Nah, you’re not supposed to swim after eating are you? You’ll get cramps.” Ichigo just shrugged and waded in before swimming off. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” Grimmjow called after him, shaking his head before sitting down. Ichigo returned after a short while, clutching his stomach and grumbling about cramps, making Grimmjow laugh. The orange head may be the King and shoulder a lot of responsibilities, but in some respects he was still a child.

Ichigo, catching sight of Grimmjow looking at him in an oddly thoughtful way, frowned. “What? I swear if you say ‘I told you so’ I’ll punch you.”

Grimmjow laughed, reaching out to hold one of his hands and gave it a quick squeeze. “No, I wasn’t thinking that. I was actually thinking that you are still quite young aren’t you, and even though you shoulder so many responsibilities, you know very little about the world, don’t you.”

Ichigo froze, his eyes widening as he looked at Grimmjow before he looked down, clutching the blanket with his free hand. “I know, and that scares me because I have to run a Kingdom, everyone relies on me and yet, I’m still just a teenager.” He let out a short laugh, shaking his head. “Without you, I wouldn’t be able to do this.”

Grimmjow’s expression softened and he pulled Ichigo into his arms. “Hey, we’re a team right? Without you I wouldn’t be able to do this either. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have become the man I am now, I would still be a bounty hunter.”

Ichigo lifted his head and smiled, cupping the side of his face. “I’m glad you didn’t just hand me over to the Queen. You know she would’ve paid you a fair price for me? Probably half of the Kingdom’s treasures, that’s how much she wanted my heart.”

“Well yes, I would be rich. But then I wouldn’t have your heart.” Grimmjow placed his hand over Ichigo’s chest and the orange head shivered, holding the hand in his own. There were scars over his heart now, the marks never faded from the Queen’s ritual. “And that makes me the richest man in the Kingdom.”

“Now you really are being a sap.” Ichigo kissed him softly before standing, looking up at the sky again and sighed. “We should start heading back, it’ll be dark soon.” He started hunting for his clothes which were tossed carelessly around the bank and after a good ten minutes, they were both dressed again and ready to go. “So… this holiday hut idea, you really think it’s a good idea?” He asked, mounting Shiro again and they started back towards the castle.

Grimmjow nodded. “Yeah, our own private escape. Granted no-one knows about it that is. So once a month, you can get away from your duties, if only for a day.” Ichigo rolled his eyes. “It would be more than that. It would be a place for us to be together, without fear of someone seeing or inappropriate behaviour. It would be our sanctuary, a place for just us.”

“And the day you have an heir?”

Ichigo paused, riding up beside Grimmjow and grabbed his hand. “The day _we_ have an heir. Then they will be included, our baby can know of it. They can grow up knowing that it’s ok to want to be normal sometimes, to not always want the pressures of royalty.”

Grimmjow nodded after a moment, squeezing his hand. “Our baby.”

“You know if I could carry your child, I would. But I can’t, this is just one of those things we have to work around. Besides, we have a long time before we come to children. I certainly don’t want any right now. I don’t know about you but the thought of mini me’s and you’s running about is terrifying.” He smiled when Grimmjow laughed and shook his head at the thought. “Come on, let’s go home, I figure we may find some time alone before dinner in our chambers?”

“Is that a challenge?”

“Maybe.” Ichigo raised an eyebrow at him, a grin forming. Gripping Shiro’s reigns, he gave the horse a quick squeeze to let him know they were about to go. “You’ve got to keep up though.” Grimmjow shook his head as Ichigo tore off, his own smile forming before he chased after him.

And he would continue following Ichigo for the rest of their days, helping and guiding the teen into his adult years to become a King that would be spoken of for many generations to come. The greatest King of the Kingdom of Zangetsu. The one who reclaimed their lands from the evil Queen and restored it to its former greater glory. The King who ruled with a fair and just heart, with his Consort at his side and the two kept peace for their reign, their children following in their footsteps for years to follow.


End file.
